The Tagant Plateau is located in eastern

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

, forming a stony part 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 = , ...

. The

Tagant Region Tagant ( ar, ولاية تكانت) is a region in south-central Mauritania named for the Tagant Plateau. Its capital is Tidjikdja. Other major cities/towns include Tichit and Rachid, Nbeika. The region borders the Mauritanian regions of Adrar t ...

, a national administrative division, is named after the plateau.

Geography

Some towns are located at the foot of the Tagant Plateau's slopes, which form

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s in some places. Among these areas are

Tichit Tichit or Tichitt ( ber, Ticit, ar, تيشيت) is a partly abandoned village at the foot of the Tagant Plateau in central southern Mauritania that is known for its vernacular architecture. The main agriculture in Tichit is date farming, and the ...

Moudjéria Moudjeria is a town and commune in the Tagant Region of southern-central Mauritania, founded in 1934 as an administrative post by the French.Moustapha Sidatt, « Introduction à l’Histoire du plateau du Tagant », In ''Conservación y desarro ...

and Rachid.

Tidjikdja Tidjikja () is the capital of the Tagant region of central Mauritania, lying on the Tagant plateau. Founded in 1680, it has a population of around 11,000 people. The town is known for its palm trees and its vernacular architecture. The town ...

lies on the Tagant itself. The Assaba Massif, where

Late Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya. ...

glacial formations have been identified, is a southward prolongation of the Tagant plateau. The Aoukar, the dry basin of a former lake lies beyond of the southern escarpments of the Tagant Plateau.

History

Beginning in mid-17th century, migrants from 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 ...

region moved in and displaced the native population of the Tagant Plateau. The Tartega Gueltas

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

is one of the few

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

in the region where there were still

desert crocodile The West African crocodile, desert crocodile, or sacred crocodile (''Crocodylus suchus'') is a species of crocodile related to – and often confused with – the larger and more aggressive Nile crocodile (''C. niloticus''). Taxonomy Compared ...

s in 1976, but the population seems to have been last seen in 1996.

References

External links

1.3 Mauritania - Ramsar Sites Information Service
Landforms of Mauritania Plateaus of Africa Natural regions of Africa {{Mauritania-geo-stub

Geography

History

See also

References

External links