All activities / Trekking / Hiking / Chinguetti
Trekking / Hiking in Chinguetti
A medieval caravan town on the Adrar plateau of Mauritania, once a great trans-Saharan trading post and place of Islamic learning and still counted among the holy cities of Islam. Its dry-stone ksar, minaret and family manuscript libraries stand on the edge of the Erg Ouarane sand sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site slowly pressed by the advancing dunes.
Why here
Chinguetti is the classic starting point for a camel caravan trek into the Erg Ouarane, one of the great sand seas of the Sahara. The town itself is extraordinary, a thousand-year-old ksar of stone and mud on the desert's edge, but the reason to walk from here is the emptiness beyond it. On a multi-day mehariste trek you follow old caravan routes with a local guide and camels carrying the camp, walking through the cool of the morning and evening across dune fields, gravel plains and the occasional palm grove, and sleeping out under some of the darkest skies anywhere. There are no roads, no crowds and no noise, just the rhythm of the caravan and the shift of the light on the sand. It is a slow, physical way to travel that connects you to how the desert was always crossed, and it ends back among the libraries and lanes of Chinguetti. For a traveller after real remoteness and a taste of nomad life, this is the Sahara at its purest.
Best months
The trekking season runs from October to March, when the days are warm rather than dangerous and the nights are cold; the rest of the year is too hot for multi-day walking. Days involve several hours on foot in soft sand with camels carrying gear and water, so a reasonable level of fitness helps, though the pace is steady rather than fast. Water is limited and carried by the caravan. Sun is intense even in winter, and the desert nights drop sharply, so warm layers and a good sleeping bag matter.
Getting there & around
Travel advisory · Reconsider Travel
US State Dept Level 3 Reconsider Travel; UK FCDO advises against all but essential travel beyond Atar, which includes Chinguetti; Australia says Do Not Travel to Adrar province over kidnap risk (as of 2026-07). Trek only with an established local operator; independent travel is strongly discouraged. Chinguetti is reached by 4x4 from Atar over a rough desert road, so most treks begin with a transfer from Atar. Bring sturdy boots, a warm sleeping bag, sun and wind protection and cash, and let the operator arrange camels, guides, food and water. Nights are bitterly cold in midwinter.
Skill levels: intermediate
Schools & guides (1)
Salima Voyages
OutfitterSalima Voyages is a local Mauritanian agency based in Atar that has specialised in the Adrar desert for more than thirty years, running 4x4 expeditions and camel treks with its own guides, drivers and camp crews. From Chinguetti it leads multi-day camel caravans, or mehariste treks, into the dunes of the Erg Ouarane, sleeping at desert bivouacs along old caravan routes, and pairs them with the caravan towns of Chinguetti and Ouadane and the Banc d'Arguin coast. It works in French and English.