Mauritania · MR

Adrar

The Adrar is the vast, name-giving heart of northern Mauritania: a plateau of dark rock and pink-brown sandstone sliced by dry valleys, where palm groves cluster wherever water runs close to the surface. Its capital, Atar, is the practical starting point for the country's greatest desert wonders — the UNESCO caravan towns of Chinguetti and Ouadane, the spring-fed gorge oasis of Terjit, and the immense concentric rings of the Richat Structure, the so-called Eye of the Sahara. For travellers, the Adrar is not a single monument but a whole Saharan world you cross slowly: long 4×4 tracks and multi-day camel treks that take you from a bustling desert market town, over the Amogjar Pass, into silent ksour where families still guard medieval manuscripts. It is demanding and remote, and that is exactly the appeal — among the most authentic deep-desert experiences anywhere in the Sahara.