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Oualata or Walatah
is a small oasis town in south east Mauritania that
was important in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
as the southern terminus of trans-Saharan trade.
Oualata originally formed
part of the Ghana Empire and grew wealthy through trade.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century Oualata replaced
Aoudaghost as the principal southern terminus for the
trans-Saharan trade and developed into an important
commercial and religious centre.
The major trans-Saharan route started at Sijilmasa and
passed through the town of Taghaza with its salt mines
and ended at Oualata.
From the second half of the fourteenth century Timbuktu
gradually replaced Oualata as the southern terminus
of the trans-Sahara trade and Oualata declined in importance.
Today, Oualata has been declared a World Heritage Site.
Mauritania is generally flat, its 1,030,700 square kilometers
(397,850 sq mi) forming vast, arid plains broken by
occasional ridges and clifflike outcroppings.
Approximately three quarters of Mauritania is desert
or semidesert. As a result of extended, severe drought,
the desert has been expanding since the mid-1960s. To
the west, between the ocean and the plateaus, are alternating
areas of clayey plains (regs) and sand dunes (ergs),
some of which shift from place to place, gradually moved
by high winds. The dunes generally increase in size
and mobility toward the north.
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Related
links:
http://whc.unesco.org/
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