Mauritania: Land of Sand and Sea!

Mauritania is a country way over in Northwest Africa. It’s like a giant puzzle piece touching the Atlantic Ocean on one side. On other sides, it has neighbors like Western Sahara, Algeria, Mali, and Senegal. It’s a really big country, the 11th largest in Africa! Most of it is covered by the super hot Sahara Desert, like a giant sandbox stretching for miles and miles.

Ninety percent of Mauritania is the Sahara Desert! That means lots and lots of sand dunes. It’s so hot and dry there that not many people can live in the desert part. Most people, like about 4.3 million, live closer to the southern part of the country where it’s a little cooler, or by the big Atlantic Ocean. The capital city, Nouakchott, is right on the coast!

People have lived in this land for a very, very long time. Long ago, it was part of a bigger place called Mauretania. Then, groups of people called Berbers lived there. Later, around 700 AD, Arab tribes came and brought their language, Arabic, and their religion, Islam. For a while, France ruled this land, but in 1960, Mauritania became its own independent country!

Even though it’s a desert, people in Mauritania find ways to live and work. They are great at fishing along the Atlantic coast, and they also farm in the southern parts of the country. They have lots of natural treasures, like minerals, that they can share with other countries. Arabic is the main language spoken here, and most people are Muslim.