Oualata

Oualata is the last of the four inscribed caravan towns and the only one where the houses are painted, their doorways and courtyards covered in white geometric designs that the women of each household draw on the red earth walls. It stands at the far eastern end of the country under a low escarpment, and was the final stop of an old trade route up from the Niger. Old manuscripts are kept in a small museum there. It lies deep inside a region that foreign governments advise against visiting, and almost nobody now makes the journey.