For centuries, poets, scholars, and theologians have flocked to Chinguetti, a trans-Saharan trading post that is home to more than a dozen libraries containing thousands of manuscripts.
The ancient city is on the verge of being erased from existence. Sand dunes have buried its 8th-century heart for centuries and are now slowly engulfing the surrounding neighborhoods.
Locals claim the desert is their ultimate goal.
As the Earth's climate becomes increasingly hot and dry, massive sandstorms are more frequently dumping meters of sand dunes onto Chinguetti's streets and into people's homes, effectively submerging some of them entirely.
Efforts to plant trees in an attempt to hold back the advancing sands have not yet alleviated the profound concerns about the future.
As if a natural catastrophe were unfolding in slow motion
Chinguetti is one of four UNESCO World Heritage sites in Mauritania, a West African country where only 0.5 percent of the land is considered arable.
As per the data from the World Bank.
Mauritanians consider Chinguetti to be one of the holiest cities in Islam. Its dry stone and mud mortar homes, mosques, and libraries house some of West Africa's oldest Quranic texts and manuscripts, which cover subjects such as law and mathematics.
Community leader Melainine Med El Wely is deeply troubled by the consequences for residents and the rich history within Chinguetti's walls. It's as if witnessing a natural disaster unfolding at a glacial pace, he said.
"The city is encircled by a seemingly endless sea of shifting sand that is constantly expanding," El Wely, the president of the local Association for Participatory Oasis Management, noted.
I now walk through places that were once the rooftops of houses when I was a child.
He recalls a time when enough sand had blown into his neighborhood to cover the palm trees used for roofing, with a camel unknowingly walking into what was once someone's living room.
Deserts are growing at an alarming rate.
Research indicates that sand migration is a major contributor to desertification. Deserts, including the Sahara, are expanding at an alarming rate and "sand seas" are being reactivated, with blowing dunes and transforming landscapes once dominated by vegetation.
"We previously considered the worst-case scenario five to 10 years ago to be more probable than we had initially envisioned," said Andreas Baas, an earth scientist from King's College London who studies how winds and their impact on sand are evolving.
In recent decades, as stated in a 2024 United Nations report on desertification, the increasing aridity has severely threatened the survival of plants, humans, and animals. This aridity deprives the land of the essential moisture required to support life, results in crop failure, and can lead to sandstorms and wildfires.
Human-induced climate change is the main cause; it's making the planet warmer, while also drying out more and more land," the UN report stated. "Water scarcity due to aridity is resulting in illness and death, and triggering massive forced migration globally.
Researchers and policymakers are primarily concerned about soil degradation in regions that were once fertile and are now becoming deserts, rather than areas that have been desertified long ago.
Houses are now buried under the sand.
and livelihoods are vanishing.
Farmers like 50-year-old Salima Ould Salem have found it increasingly challenging to sustain their palm trees, and now have to bring in water from tanks and prune them more thoroughly to ensure it is utilized efficiently.
Salem's neighborhood used to be inhabited by families, but they have gradually relocated. Sand has filled the doorway to his home, as well as the sites where some of his former neighbors once resided. A nearby guesthouse, built by a Belgian investor decades ago, is now partially submerged in a rippling copper-hued dune.
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“Here is where I feel most comfortable. If I leave, my home will cease to exist,” the 50-year-old date farmer stated.
Trees that once provided a natural barrier for the neighborhood have vanished
A once-thick canopy of acacia, gum, and palm trees used to protect the neighborhood from the advancing dunes, but they have been lost over time. The trees either succumbed to dehydration or were felled by residents who needed firewood or foliage to sustain their livestock.
Sandstorms are not a rare phenomenon but have become more frequent, leaving large amounts of sand in the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city, according to Mohamed Lemine Bahane, a retired teacher. Residents have turned to using mules and carts to clear the sand due to the narrow streets of the old city, which are not wide enough to accommodate cars or bulldozers.
When sand accumulates to a significant height, some people construct new barriers on top of existing edifices.
The removal of vegetation allows the dunes to become more active, as it's primarily the vegetation that prevents the sand from blowing excessively.
Bahane has been monitoring the sand deposits and rainfall for years and reports that Chinguetti has averaged 2.5 centimeters of rainfall annually over the past decade.
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The sands also raise public health concerns for the community due to the dust they inhale, according to Bahane.
Would planting more trees be able to prevent sand from burying Chinguetti?
In Bahane's opinion, the solution lies in planting more trees in residential areas and along the town's boundaries.
As Africa's "Great Green Wall" and also in towns like Chinguetti.
Mauritania's Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, as well as European-funded Non-Governmental Organizations, have proposed projects to plant trees around the city's libraries and manuscripts to shield them from the approaching desert.
Although some areas have been replanted, there is little evidence that this has effectively halted the desert's spread. It can take several years for the deep roots of these plants to reach the groundwater.
“We firmly believe that desertification is our predetermined fate. However, there are still those who share our conviction that it can be thwarted,” El Wely, the community leader, stated.