Place · city

Chinguetti

Chinguetti is a desert town in the Adrar region of central Mauritania, founded in the 13th century as a stop on trans-Saharan caravan routes. It became a centre of Islamic learning, with family libraries of manuscripts, and gave its name to the whole country in Arabic as Bilad Shinqit. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, threatened by encroaching sand.

Chinguetti
Image: François COLIN · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Emirate of Adrar

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Chinguetti. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chinguetti
MLA
“Chinguetti.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chinguetti. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Chinguetti.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chinguetti.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Chinguetti’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/chinguetti (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻