Atar ( ar, أطار, Berber for ''mountain'') is a town in northwestern Mauritania, the capital of the

Adrar Region Adrar ( ar, ولاية أدرار) is a large administrative region in Mauritania, named for the Adrar Plateau. The capital is Atar. Other major towns include Choum, Chinguetti and Ouadane. The region borders Western Sahara and the Mauritania ...

and the main settlement on the

Adrar Plateau The Adrar (, Berber for "mountain") is a highland natural and historical region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mauritania. The Adrar Region, an administrative division of Mauritania, is named after the traditional region. It is sometimes call ...

. Situated on the oued Seguellil, it is home to an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

, a museum and a historic mosque, constructed in 1674. In 2013 it had a population of 25,190.

Geology and geography

The Adrar's mountains are from the primary era against the precambrian

Tiris Zemmour Tiris Zemmour ( ar, ولاية تيرس زمور) is the northernmost region of Mauritania. Its capital is Zouérat. Other major cities/towns include F'dérik and Bir Moghrein. The region borders Algeria to the north-east, Mali to east, the Mau ...

. Near Atar, you can find

stromatolite Stromatolites () or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations ( microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria). T ...

s. In the North, you can find Choum with the train that comes from

Nouadhibou Nouadhibou (; ar, نواذيبو, Nwādībū, Berber: Nwadibu, formerly in French: ) is the second largest city in Mauritania and serves as a major commercial centre. The city itself has about 118,000 inhabitants expanding to over 140,000 in the l ...

and goes to Zouerate. East of Atar, through

Amojjar Pass Amojjar Pass is a mountain pass in the Adrar Plateau in the centre of Adrar, near Atar, Mauritania. The pink-brown sandstone of the pass was worn away by repeated cycles of extreme dryness interrupted by torrential rain. The bases of the steep ...

, is the difficult way to

Chinguetti Chinguetti () ( ar, شنقيط, translit=Šinqīṭ) is a ksar and a medieval trading center in northern Mauritania, located on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 13th century as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this ...

, Ouadane and the astonishing

Richat Structure The Richat Structure, also called ''Guelb er Richât'' ( ar, قلب الريشات, Qalb ar-Rīšāt), is a prominent circular geological feature in the Sahara's Adrar Plateau, near Ouadane, west–central Mauritania, Northwest Africa. In the ...

Climate

Atar has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWh'') typical of the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, south of the tropic of Cancer. The weather is usually very hot, very sunny and very dry but it can be overcast sometimes. The annual average temperature is close to 30 °C (86 °F), meaning that excessive heat persists year-round. The annual mean rainfall amount is very low, averaging no more than 35 mm and it mainly falls in August and in September while the sunshine duration is high, at over 3,540 h of bright sunshine yearly.

Tourism

Today, the Atar is best known to outsiders as an entryway for tourists to visit the ruins of the ancient Moorish cities of Ouadane and

. It was a key stop in the world's longest off-road race, the

Paris Dakar Rally The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were staged from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, ...

, held every January.

Small business sector

The "samaras" (from Arab smela : sole) are made in Atar and well known in Mauritania. It's a leather sole with straps.

Military

In 2012, an air force school was founded in Atar to train pilots and crew for the

Military of Mauritania The Armed Forces of Mauritania ( ar, الجيش الوطني الموريتاني, french: Armée Nationale Mauritanienne) is the defence force of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, having an army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and presidential g ...

Notable people

Med Hondo Med Hondo (born Mohamed Abid Hondo; 4 May 1935 – 2 March 2019) was a Mauritanian-born French director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Considered a founding father of African cinema, he is known for his controversial films dealing with issu ...

- film director (1936-2019) *

Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya ( ar, معاوية ولد سيد أحمد الطايع, Ma‘āwiyah wuld Sīdi Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭāya‘ / Mu'awiya walad Sayyidi Ahmad Taya; born 28 November 1941) is a Mauritanian military officer who served as the ...

- 5th

President of Mauritania This is a list of heads of state of Mauritania since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day. A total of nine people have served as head of state of Mauritania (not counting one Acting President). Additionally, o ...

(born 1941)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Regional capitals in Mauritania Communes of Adrar Region