Amojjar Pass is a
mountain pass in 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 ...
in the centre of
Adrar Adrar (in Tifinagh script "ⴰⴷⵔⴰⵔ"), a Berber word meaning "mountain", is the name of several areas in Northwest Africa:
Algeria
* Adrar, Algeria, a town in Algeria
* Adrar Province, an administrative division of Algeria
* Adrar District, ...
, near
Atar
Atar, Atash, or Azar ( ae, 𐬁𐬙𐬀𐬭, translit=ātar) is the Zoroastrian concept of holy fire, sometimes described in abstract terms as "burning and unburning fire" or "visible and invisible fire" (Mirza, 1987:389). It is considered to ...
,
Mauritania.
The pink-brown
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
of the pass was worn away by repeated cycles of extreme dryness interrupted by torrential rain.
The bases of the steep valley walls are covered in
scree
Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically ...
, loosed by the erosion of the rainfall.
There is little plant life in the pass.
Acacias
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus nam ...
are a notable exception, as they are resistant to
drought
A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
.
Amojjar Pass is an important link for
ground transportation in Mauritania because it provides a somewhat protected roadway connecting Mauritania's capital,
Nouakchott
, image_skyline = Nouakchott.jpg
, image_caption = City view of Nouakchott
, pushpin_map = Mauritania#Arab world#Africa
, pushpin_relief = 1
, mapsize =
, map_caption ...
, with other important locations such as
Ouadane and
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 ...
.
The
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
rock paintings of
Agrour Amogjar are near the pass, northeast of Atar at .
[{{Cite journal, last=Flight, first=Colin, date=1973, title=A Survey of Recent Results in the Radiocarbon Chronology of Northern and Western Africa, journal=The Journal of African History, volume=14, issue=4, pages=543, doi=10.1017/S0021853700013037, jstor=180899, s2cid=162557119 ]
Gallery
Adrar-Passe d'Amogjar (1).JPG, On the Amojjar Pass
Amojjar Pass NASA image STS037-84-21.jpg, Satellite image of Amojjar Pass, in the canyon just east of the large flat-topped plateau (center) North on the left.
References
External links
A NASA satellite image
Mountain passes of Mauritania
Canyons and gorges of Africa
Adrar Region