Chinguetti

Chinguetti was a caravan city and a centre of learning, the seventh holy city of Islam by local reckoning, and its old quarter of dry stone houses and a square minaret is inscribed as world heritage. Families here still keep libraries of handwritten books on astronomy, law and mathematics in wooden chests, and will open them for visitors who ask. The dunes are steadily winning here. Sand has already taken whole streets at the edge of the old town and is working steadily inward. The new town across the wadi is where people actually live now.