Aoukar
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}}Template:Main other Aoukar or Erg Aoukar<ref>Marco Stoppato, Alfredo Bini (2003), Deserts, p. 156</ref> (Template:Langx) is a geological depression area of south eastern Mauritania. It is located between Kiffa and Néma, south of the Tagant Plateau. The region is also referred to as Hodh or Template:NowrapTemplate:Refn (Template:Langx).<ref name=hbm>Barth, Henry. Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the Years 1849–1855, Vol. 3, pp. 712 ff. Harper & Bros. (New York), 1859. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.</ref>
The Aoukar basin is a dry natural region of sand dunes and salt pans fringed by escarpments on its northern and eastern sides.
HistoryEdit
There was once vast reed-covered endorheic lake in the area, but it no longer exists. The former lake of Aoukar extended towards the area of Tichit, bordering the southern edge of the Tagant Plateau. Below the cliffs (dhars) facing the extinct lake remains of about 400 villages have been found.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>G. Marcus and B. de Valicourt (2000). Mauritanie, p. 10</ref>
From east to west, Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt, and Dhar Tagant form a semicircular shape around the Hodh/Aoukar Depression, which, prior to 4000 BCE, was an area with lakes of considerable size, and, after 1000 BCE, was an area that had become increasingly dried.<ref name="MacDonald II">Template:Cite journal</ref> During the emergence of the Tichitt Tradition, it was an oasis area.<ref name="MacDonald II" /> The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE<ref name="McDougall">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Holl">Template:Cite journal</ref> to 200 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald IV">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Kay">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Previously administered as part of French Sudan (present-day Mali), the area was transferred to French Mauritania in 1944, apparently on a whim of the colonial governor Laigret.<ref>Lalonde, Suzanne. Determining Boundaries in a Conflicted World: The Role of Uti Possidetis, p. 109. McGill-Queen's University Press (Montreal), 2002. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.</ref> The transfer was still resented upon Mali's independence.<ref>Touval, Saadia. The Boundary Politics of Independent Africa, p. 247. iUniverse, 1999. Template:ISBN. Accessed 18 Apr 2014.</ref> Formerly more fertile, it is now largely a barren waste.<ref>Morgan, William & al. West Africa, pp. 254 ff. Methuen, 1973.</ref>
Aoukar/Hodh gave its name to the modern Mauritanian regions of Hodh Ech Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi.
EcologyEdit
The Aoukar is one of the few natural refuges for the addax, a critically endangered kind of antelope which lives in the region.<ref>Richard Trillo, The Rough Guide to West Africa</ref>