Desert sands threaten to swallow ancient 'city of libraries'

On a recent afternoon, 67-year-old Saif Islam made his way into the courtyard of a library in Chinguetti, a tiny desert settlement nestled in the Sahara in Mauritania.

- Eromo Egbejule and Ely Cheikh Mohamed Vadel CHINGUETTI

"It's these books that gave it this history, this importance," he said, pointing to a 10th-century Qur'an, brown with age. "Without these old books, Chinguetti would have been forgotten like any other abandoned town."

Chinguetti rose to prominence in the 13th century as a type of fortified settlement called a ksar that served as a stopping-off point for caravans plying trans-Saharan trade routes. It then became a gathering place for Maghreb pilgrims on the way to Mecca, and, over time, a centre for Islamic and scientific scholarship, referred to as the city of libraries, the Sorbonne of the desert, and the seventh holy city of Islam. Its manuscript libraries played host to scientific and Quranic texts dating from the later middle ages.

For decades, encroaching desert sands have threatened to bury this well of knowledge. Residents have left, and tourist numbers have fallen. Most of the current population live outside the original ksar boundaries.