Editing Chinguetti

{{Infobox settlement
| official_name                   = Chinguetti
| native_name                     = {{native name|ar|شنقيط}}
| other_name                      = City of Libraries
| image_skyline                   = Chinguetti-Vue Goblale Vieille ville.jpg
| imagesize                       = 260px
| image_caption                   = Old town, Chinguetti
| image_flag                      = 
| image_seal                      = 
| image_map                       = 
| map_caption                     = 
| pushpin_map                     = Mauritania
| pushpin_label_position          = bottom
| pushpin_mapsize                 = 300
| pushpin_map_caption             = Location in Mauritania
| subdivision_type                = [[Countries of the world|Country]]
| subdivision_type1               = [[Regions of Mauritania|Region]]
| subdivision_name                = [[Image:Flag of Mauritania.svg|25px]] [[Mauritania]]
| subdivision_name1               = [[Adrar Region]]
| subdivision_type2               = [[Departments of Mauritania|Department]]
| subdivision_name2               = [[Chinguetti Department|Chinguetti]]
| established_title               = 
| established_date                = 
| government_type                 = 
| leader_title                    = 
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| area_magnitude                  = 
| area_total_sq_mi                = 
| area_total_km2                  = 529.0 
| area_land_sq_mi                 = 
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| area_metro_sq_mi                = 
| population_as_of                = 2013 census
| population_footnotes            = 
| population_total                = 4,800
| population_urban                = 3,227
| population_metro                = 
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| timezone                        = 
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| coordinates                     = {{coord|20|27|N|12|21|W|region:MR|display=inline,title}}
| elevation_footnotes             = 
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| footnotes                       = {{designation list | embed=yes
   | designation1 = WHS
   | designation1_offname = [[Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata]]
   | designation1_date = 1996 (20th [[World Heritage Committee|session]])
   | designation1_type = Cultural
   | designation1_criteria = iii, iv, v
   | designation1_number = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/750 750]
   | designation1_free1name = Region
   | designation1_free1value = [[List of World Heritage Sites in the Arab States|Arab States]]
}}
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}}

'''Chinguetti''' ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|ɪ|ŋ|ˈ|g|ɛ|t|i}} {{respell|shing|GHET|ee}}; {{langx|ar|شنقيط|translit=Šinqīṭ}}) is a [[ksar]] and a medieval trading center in northern [[Mauritania]], located on the [[Adrar Plateau]] east of [[Atar, Mauritania|Atar]]. Chinguetti had a population of 4,800 as of 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chinguetti (Agricultural Urban Commune, Mauritania) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/mauritania/admin/chinguetti/07301__chinguetti/ |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.citypopulation.de}}</ref>

Founded in the 13th century as the center of several [[trans-Saharan trade]] routes, this small city continues to attract a handful of visitors who admire its spare architecture, scenery, and ancient libraries. The city is seriously threatened by the encroaching desert; high sand dunes mark the western boundary and several houses have been abandoned to the sand.

The town is split in two by a [[wadi]]. On one side, there is the old sector, and on the other the new one. The indigenous Saharan architecture of older sectors of the city features houses constructed of reddish dry-stone and mud-brick techniques, with flat roofs timbered from palms. Many of the older houses feature hand-hewn doors cut from massive ancient acacia trees, which have long disappeared from the surrounding area. Many homes include courtyards or patios that crowd along narrow streets leading to the central mosque.

== History ==
Occupied for thousands of years, the Chinguetti region was once a broad [[savannah]]; rock paintings at [[Agrour Amogjar]], in the nearby [[Amogjar Pass]], feature images of giraffes, cows, and people in a green landscape. It is quite different from the [[sand dune]]s of the surrounding [[Sahara|desert]], which make up most of the region today.<ref name = Smithsonian>{{cite web |last1=Maglaty |first1=Jeanne |title=Endangered Site: Chinguetti, Mauritania |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/endangered-site-chinguetti-mauritania-54168194/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=1 January 2024 |date=March 2009}}</ref>

===Founding===
The city was founded in AD 777. The name ''Chinguetti'' means "spring of horses" in the [[Nemadi dialect|Azayr language]], an extinct dialect of [[Soninke language|Soninke]] that was heavily mixed with [[Berber language|Berber]]. The area, at that time far more green than today, was home to agricultural peoples ancestral to several sub-Saharan ethnic groups, including the [[Soninke people|Soninke]].<ref name = Webb>{{cite book |last1=Webb |first1=James |title=Desert frontier : ecological and economic change along the Western Sahel, 1600-1850 |date=1995 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=0299143309 |page=29 |url=https://archive.org/details/desertfrontierec0000webb/page/28/mode/2up |access-date=25 December 2023}}</ref> {{rp|15,71}}

===Center of Trade===
By the 11th century, Chinguetti had become a trading center for a confederation of [[Berber people|Berber]] [[tribe]]s, known as the ''[[Sanhaja]]''. They eventually melded with the [[Almoravid]]s, represented by [[Abdallah ibn Yasin]], who would eventually control an empire stretching from present-day [[Senegal]] to ''[[al-Andalus]]'' in modern-day [[Spain]]. The city's stark, unadorned [[architecture]] reflects the strict religious beliefs of the Almoravids, who spread the [[Maliki]]te rite of [[Sunni]] [[Islam]] throughout the Western [[Maghreb]].

After two centuries of decline, the city was effectively re-founded in the 13th century as a fortified trading-center for nomadic trans-Saharan [[caravan (travellers)|caravan]]s, and as a means of connecting the Mediterranean with Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the walls of the original fortification disappeared centuries ago, many of the buildings in the old section of the city date from this period.

===World Heritage Site===
In 1996, UNESCO designated Chinguetti, along with the cities of [[Ouadane]], [[Tichitt]] and [[Oualata]], also in the dunes area, as a [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>{{citation |title=Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata|publisher=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|access-date=2017-08-21|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/750}}</ref> Notable buildings in the town include [[Chinguetti Mosque|The Friday Mosque of Chinguetti]], an ancient structure of dry-stone construction, featuring a square minaret capped with five [[ostrich egg]] finials; the former [[French Foreign Legion]] [[fortress]]; and a tall [[watertower]]. The old quarter has five important manuscript libraries of scientific and [[Qur'an]]ic texts, with many dating from the later [[Middle Ages]]. In recent years, the Mauritanian government, the U.S. Peace Corps, and various NGOs have attempted to position the city as a center for adventurous tourists. Visitors may "ski" down its sand dunes, visit the libraries, and appreciate the stark beauty of the Sahara. 

The [[Chinguetti Mosque|Friday Mosque]] is widely considered by Mauritanians to be the national symbol of the country.<ref name = Smithsonian/> The recently discovered offshore [[Chinguetti oil field|oilfield]] was named Chinguetti in its honor.

== Religious importance ==
For centuries, the city was a principal gathering place for [[pilgrim]]s of the [[Maghreb]] to gather, on their way to [[Mecca]]. It became known as a [[holy city]] in its own right, especially for pilgrims unable to make the long journey to the [[Arabian Peninsula|Arab Peninsula]]. It also became a center of Islamic religious and scientific scholarship in [[West Africa]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-13|title=The Importance of Mauritanian Scholars in Global Islam|url=https://merip.org/2021/04/the-importance-of-mauritanian-scholars-in-global-islam/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-31|website=[[Middle East Report|Middle East Report Online]]|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413151711/https://merip.org/2021/04/the-importance-of-mauritanian-scholars-in-global-islam/ |archive-date=2021-04-13 }}</ref> In addition to religious training, the schools of Chinguetti taught students rhetoric, law, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. For many centuries, all of Mauritania was commonly known in the Arab world as ''[[Bilad Shinqit]],'' "the land of Chinguetti." It is sometimes said to be the [[Holiest sites in Islam|seventh-most holy city]] of [[Islam]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Chinguetti in the Mauritanian Sahara is the seventh holiest city of Islam|url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chinguetti-in-the-Mauritanian-Sahara-is-the-seventh-holiest-city-of-Islam-and-a-World_fig8_233841504|url-status=live|access-date=13 November 2021|website=Researche Gate|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113170146/https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chinguetti-in-the-Mauritanian-Sahara-is-the-seventh-holiest-city-of-Islam-and-a-World_fig8_233841504 |archive-date=2021-11-13 }}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=Encyclopedia of the Third World: Laos to Zambia |page=965 |author=George Thomas Kurian |year=1978 |volume=2 |publisher=Facts on File}}</ref>  The city remains one of the world's most important historical sites both in terms of the history of Islam and the history of West Africa.

Although largely abandoned to the desert, the city features a series of medieval [[manuscript]] libraries without peer in West Africa. The area around the ''Rue des Savants'' (or “street of intelligent ones”) was once famous as a gathering place for scholars, and as a place to debate the finer points of [[Sharia|Islamic law]]. Today,  the quiet city still offers the urban and religious architecture of the Moorish empire as it existed in the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p085dgnl/inside-the-abandoned-city-of-ancient-libraries|title=Inside the abandoned city of ancient libraries|website=BBC|date=4 March 2020}}</ref>

==Climate==
In 2021 Chinguetti was featured in a BBC documentary ''Life at 50 degrees C'', which looked at ordinary people living in increasingly inhospitable areas.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Life at 50 Degrees |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/ckx7gv5qm3et/life-at-50-degrees |website=BBC}}</ref>
{{Weather box|location = Chinguetti
|metric first = Y
|single line = Y

|Jan high C = 26.0							
|Feb high C = 28.6
|Mar high C = 30.9
|Apr high C = 33.5
|May high C = 37.1
|Jun high C = 40.5
|Jul high C = 41.3
|Aug high C = 40.4
|Sep high C = 39.0
|Oct high C = 36.0
|Nov high C = 31.1
|Dec high C = 26.2

|Jan low C = 11.5					
|Feb low C = 13.0
|Mar low C = 15.4
|Apr low C = 17.7
|May low C = 21.0
|Jun low C = 24.7
|Jul low C = 25.7
|Aug low C = 25.5
|Sep low C = 24.5
|Oct low C = 21.3
|Nov low C = 16.7
|Dec low C = 12.2

|Jan precipitation mm = 2	
|Feb precipitation mm = 2
|Mar precipitation mm = 2
|Apr precipitation mm = 0
|May precipitation mm = 1
|Jun precipitation mm = 2
|Jul precipitation mm = 6
|Aug precipitation mm = 18
|Sep precipitation mm = 18
|Oct precipitation mm = 7
|Nov precipitation mm = 4
|Dec precipitation mm = 2
|year precipitation mm= 64

|source = [https://en.climate-data.org/location/32286/ Climate-data.org]
|date=05 March 2018}}

== Gallery ==
<gallery mode="packed-hover" heights="180">
File:Chinguetti mosquee.jpg|The Great "Friday Mosque"
File:Chinguetti-biblio.jpg|Inside a Qur'anic Library
File:ChinguettiNewTown.jpg|New town architecture of Chinguetti
</gallery>

== Notable residents ==
* [[Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti]] (1863–1913), who was born and lived here, is one of Mauritania's most famous writers.
* [[Muhammad al-Amin al-Shinqiti]] (1887–1973), an Islamic scholar.

== See also ==
* [[Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata]]
* Documentary film [[Beyond Paper]]
* [[Chinguetti oil field]], Mauritania's first offshore oil field
* [[Greater Mauritania]], (بلاد شنقيط; Bilād Šinqīṭ; Bilad Chinguetti)
* The [[Chinguetti meteorite]] is a find reputed to come from a large unconfirmed “iron mountain”, located in the nearby of the town.
* Documentary film [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlQj4IzdxHk MAURITANIA - Ouadane to Chinguetti]
* Documentary film [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IxumKLI0MQ The FORTIFIED town of Chinguetti | SLICE]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Chinguetti}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131225082723/http://ml-datos.com/4/ficheros/mapas/mauritania/Chinguetti.PNG Map showing Chinguetti: Fond Typographique 1:200,000", République Islamique de Mauritanie: Chinguetti Sheet NF-28-VI]
* [https://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=750 UNESCO on Chinguetti]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312112550/http://www.mauritania-today.com/anglais/tourism/cities/chinguetti/ <u>Mauritania Today</u> – Chinguetti]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050920104700/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200306/mauritania.s.manuscripts.htm Chinguetti's manuscripts], ''Saudi Aramco World''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070204062213/http://foia.state.gov/MMS/postrpt/pr_view_all.asp?cntryID=96 U.S. Department of State Reports – Mauritania]
* [http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/book-1930 <u>Palin's Travels</u> – Chinguetti]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060615113604/http://www.remibenali.com/world_heritage_chinguetti/ Desert libraries]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061206230758/http://shinqit.net/ Shinqit Forum]

{{World Heritage Sites in Mauritania}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:777 establishments]]
[[Category:Adrar region]]
[[Category:Populated places in Mauritania]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 8th century]]
[[Category:World Heritage Sites in Mauritania]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Mauritania]]
[[Category:Holy cities]]
[[Category:8th-century establishments in Africa]]
[[Category:Ksars]]