Sahara desert sands swallow ancient town and its trove of medieval manuscripts
From his roof, Sidi Mohamed Lemine Sidiya scans the medieval town of Oualata, a treasure that is disappearing under the sands of the Sahara desert.
'It's a magnificent, extraordinary town,' said Sidiya, who is battling to preserve the place known as the 'Shore of Eternity'.
Oualata is one of a Unesco-listed quartet of ancient, fortified towns, or ksour, which in their heyday were trading and religious centres and now hold jewels dating back to the Middle Ages.
Doors crafted from acacia wood and adorned with traditional motifs painted by local women still dot the town.
Oualata's imam and caretaker of its library of medieval manuscripts, Mohamed Ben Baty, enters his traditionally decorated home in the Mauritanian town. Photo: AFP
Centuries-old manuscripts, a rich source of cultural and literary heritage handed down through the generations, are also held in family libraries.
But the town in the southeast of Mauritania near the border with Mali in northwest Africa is vulnerable to the ravages of the Sahara's extreme conditions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
Senegal PM's ‘deep gratitude' to China after US refuses women's basketball team's visas
Senegal's Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko expressed his 'deep gratitude' to China on Thursday for its support of the country's women's basketball team, after the United States rejected visas for several members ahead of a planned training camp. The visa refusals come amid US President Donald Trump's administration's immigration crackdown and tightened border controls. Senegal is among 36 nations the US is considering adding to a travel ban barring entry to its territory, according to an internal administration memo. America is set to co-host the 2026 Fifa World Cup with Canada and Mexico, and stage the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Posting on Facebook, Sonko said he had been told 'about the refusal to issue visas to several members of the Senegalese women's national basketball team'. 01:08 'Best in the world': Trump shows off new giant flagpoles at the White House 'Best in the world': Trump shows off new giant flagpoles at the White House He said he had instructed the country's ministry of sports to 'simply cancel the ten-day preparatory training'.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
How Rwanda became a luxury ecotourism leader, moving beyond ‘genocide and gorillas' label
Rwanda made global headlines in 1994 for a genocide that saw Hutu extremists kill around 800,000 people, mostly from the minority Tutsi community, over a 100-day period during the country's civil war. Today, the landlocked East African nation is not only politically stable but has established itself as a leader in high-end ecotourism, with some of the continent's most luxurious safari lodges. Manzi Kayihura, who works for ecotourism companies Wilderness Rwanda and Thousand Hills Africa, has watched this transformation up close. He has worked in Rwanda's tourism industry for almost 30 years, including as chief executive of Rwanda's national airline and chairman of the Rwanda Tours and Travel Association. Manzi Kayihura has over 30 years of experience in Rwanda's tourism sector. Photo: Manzi Kayihura Over the last two decades, he has seen the industry champion a high-value, low-volume ecotourism model with sustainability, conservation and community benefit at its core. 'Rwanda is ecologically fragile, so we can't do mass tourism, which is why our strategy has been low volumes and high yields,' he says on a Zoom call from Rwanda.
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Cairo calling: why Chinese factories are moving to Egypt amid the trade war
Until recently, Jiahao's guest house in a quiet corner of Cairo was a modest pit stop for Chinese tourists on their way to visit the Egyptian pyramids. But this spring, the hostel suddenly began to attract a different kind of client. Jiahao, the hostel's 26-year-old owner, began welcoming groups of factory owners from across China and Southeast Asia – grizzled businesspeople whose trips were not about sightseeing, but survival. 'Many business owners now book week-long stays,' Jiahao said. 'I drive them to meet local officials, help them with translations, and sometimes even sit in on investment negotiations.' These visits are part of a broader shift in global supply chains, as a wave of Chinese manufacturers set up Egyptian factories in the belief that the African nation represents a haven from sky-high US tariffs. Chinese exporters have been offshoring production in droves ever since US President Donald Trump first began targeting China with tariffs during his first term in office, with many of those early movers choosing to cluster in Southeast Asia.
