Aoukar

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Script error: No such module "Settlement short description".Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".Expression error: Unexpected < operator. Aoukar or Erg Aoukar[1] (Template:Langx) is a geological depression area of south eastern Mauritania. It is located between Kiffa and Néma, south of the Tagant Plateau. The region is also referred to as Hodh or El HodhTemplate:Refn (Template:Langx).[2]

The Aoukar basin is a dry natural region of sand dunes and salt pans fringed by escarpments on its northern and eastern sides.

History

There was once vast reed-covered endorheic lake in the area, but it no longer exists. The former lake of Aoukar extended towards the area of Tichit, bordering the southern edge of the Tagant Plateau. Below the cliffs (dhars) facing the extinct lake remains of about 400 villages have been found.[3][4]

File:Stein 1861 Africa Umars Jihad State.jpg
An 1861 German map displaying the unoccupied Hodh amid the Toucouleur Empire of Umar Tall.

From east to west, Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt, and Dhar Tagant form a semicircular shape around the Hodh/Aoukar Depression, which, prior to 4000 BCE, was an area with lakes of considerable size, and, after 1000 BCE, was an area that had become increasingly dried.[5] During the emergence of the Tichitt Tradition, it was an oasis area.[5] The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE[6][7] to 200 BCE.[8][9]

Previously administered as part of French Sudan (present-day Mali), the area was transferred to French Mauritania in 1944, apparently on a whim of the colonial governor Laigret.[10] The transfer was still resented upon Mali's independence.[11] Formerly more fertile, it is now largely a barren waste.[12]

Aoukar/Hodh gave its name to the modern Mauritanian regions of Hodh Ech Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi.

File:Landscape of the Aoukar.jpg
A view of the dunes in the Aoukar

Ecology

The Aoukar is one of the few natural refuges for the addax, a critically endangered kind of antelope which lives in the region.[13]

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Marco Stoppato, Alfredo Bini (2003), Deserts, p. 156
  2. ↑ Barth, Henry. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the Years 1849–1855, Vol. 3, pp. 712 ff. Harper & Bros. (New York), 1859. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ G. Marcus and B. de Valicourt (2000). Mauritanie, p. 10
  5. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Lalonde, Suzanne. Determining Boundaries in a Conflicted World: The Role of Uti Possidetis, p. 109. McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal), 2002. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
  11. ↑ Touval, Saadia. The Boundary Politics of Independent Africa, p. 247. iUniverse, 1999. Template:ISBN. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
  12. ↑ Morgan, William & al. West Africa, pp. 254 ff. Methuen, 1973.
  13. ↑ Richard Trillo, The Rough Guide to West Africa

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External links

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