Aoukar
title: "Aoukar" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["landforms-of-mauritania", "depressions-(geology)", "endorheic-basins-of-africa", "geology-of-mauritania", "sedimentary-basins-of-africa", "natural-regions-of-africa", "regions-of-west-africa", "geography-of-mali", "geography-of-mauritania", "west-africa"] topic_path: "science/earth-science" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoukar" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Aoukar |
| native_name | عوكر |
| native_name_lang | ar |
| settlement_type | Natural region |
| image_skyline | Ayoun atrous.jpg |
| image_caption | Landscape in the Ayoun el Atrous area |
| image_map | Aoukar-Mauritania Topography.png |
| map_caption | Location of the Aoukar basin in Mauritania |
| subdivision_type | Country |
| subdivision_name | Mauritania |
| area_urban_footnotes | |
| area_rural_footnotes | |
| area_metro_footnotes | |
| area_magnitude | |
| elevation_m | 240 |
| population_density_km2 | auto |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Aoukar | native_name = عوكر | native_name_lang = ar | settlement_type = Natural region | image_skyline =Ayoun atrous.jpg | image_alt = | image_caption =Landscape in the Ayoun el Atrous area | image_flag = | flag_alt = | image_seal = | seal_alt = | image_shield = | shield_alt = | nickname = | motto = | image_map =Aoukar-Mauritania Topography.png | map_alt = | map_caption =Location of the Aoukar basin in Mauritania | pushpin_map = | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_alt = | pushpin_map_caption = | coordinates = | coor_pinpoint = | coordinates_footnotes = | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = Mauritania | subdivision_type1 = | subdivision_name1 = | subdivision_type2 = | subdivision_name2 = | subdivision_type3 = | subdivision_name3 = tags -- | area_footnotes = | area_urban_footnotes = | area_rural_footnotes = | area_metro_footnotes = | area_magnitude = | area_note = | area_water_percent = | area_rank = | area_blank1_title = | area_blank2_title = | area_total_km2 = | area_land_km2 = | area_water_km2 = | area_urban_km2 = | area_rural_km2 = | area_metro_km2 = | area_blank1_km2 = | area_blank2_km2 = | area_total_ha = | area_land_ha = | area_water_ha = | area_urban_ha = | area_rural_ha = | area_metro_ha = | area_blank1_ha = | area_blank2_ha = | length_km = | width_km = | dimensions_footnotes = | elevation_footnotes = | elevation_m = 240 | population_footnotes = | population_total = | population_as_of = | population_density_km2 = auto | population_demonym = | population_note = | timezone1 = | utc_offset1 = | timezone1_DST = | utc_offset1_DST = | website = | footnotes = Aoukar or Erg Aoukar () 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 Hodh ().
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. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Stein_1861_Africa_Umars_Jihad_State.jpg" caption="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. During the emergence of the Tichitt Tradition, it was an oasis area. The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE to 200 BCE.
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. The transfer was still resented upon Mali's independence. Formerly more fertile, it is now largely a barren waste.
Aoukar/Hodh gave its name to the modern Mauritanian regions of Hodh Ech Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi.
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Landscape_of_the_Aoukar.jpg" caption="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.
References
References
- Marco Stoppato, Alfredo Bini (2003), ''Deserts'', p. 156
- unesco (Paris), 1988. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
- Lanham]]), 1996. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
- [[Henry Barth
- "Tichit - The living ghost of yesterday's glory".
- ''G. Marcus and B. de Valicourt'' (2000). Mauritanie, p. 10
- (April 2009). "Dhar Néma: from early agriculture to metallurgy in southeastern Mauritania". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa.
- (2019). "Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History".
- (25 June 2009). "Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, (ca. 4000–2300 BP)". Comptes Rendus. Géoscience.
- (2007). "Early domesticated pearl millet in Dhar Nema (Mauritania): evidence of crop processing waste as ceramic temper". Barkhuis.
- (2019). "Diversification, Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500". Journal of World Prehistory.
- Lalonde, Suzanne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=x7qEqVpq9poC&pg=PA109 ''Determining Boundaries in a Conflicted World: The Role of'' Uti Possidetis, p. 109.] McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal), 2002. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
- 1583484221. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.
- Morgan, William & al. ''West Africa'', pp. 254 ff. Methuen, 1973.
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=8-GCQyrotgMC&dq=Aoukar+addax&pg=PT326 Richard Trillo, ''The Rough Guide to West Africa'']
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