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Mauritania
Index
The Coastal Zone, or Sub-Canarian Zone, extends the length of
the approximately 754-kilometer-long Atlantic coast. Prevailing
oceanic trade winds from the Canary Islands modify the influence
of the harmattan, producing a humid but temperate climate.
Rainfall here is minimal; in Nouadhibou it averages less than
three centimeters annually and occurs between July and September.
Temperatures are moderate, varying from mean maximums of 28°C
and
32°C for Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, respectively, to mean
minimums of 16°C and 19°C.
Battering surf and shifting sand banks characterize the
entire length of the shoreline. The Ras Nouadhibou (formerly Cap
Blanc) peninsula, which forms Dakhlet Nouadhibou (formerly
LĂ©vrier Bay) to the east, is fifty kilometers long and up to
thirteen kilometers wide. The peninsula is administratively
divided between
Western Sahara (see Glossary)
and Mauritania,
with the Mauritanian port and railhead of Nouadhibou located on
the eastern shore
(see
fig. 11). Dakhlet Nouadhibou, one of the
largest natural harbors on the west coast of Africa, is fortythree kilometers long and thirty-two kilometers wide at its
broadest point. Fifty kilometers southeast of Ras Nouadhibou is
Arguin. In 1455 the first Portuguese installation south of Cape
Bojador (in the present-day Western Sahara) was established at
Arguin. Farther south is the coastline's only significant
promontory, seven-meter-high Cape Timiris. From this cape to the
marshy area around the mouth of the Senegal River, the coast is
regular and marked only by an occasional high dune.
On coastal dunes vegetation is rare. At the foot of ridges,
however, large tamarisk bushes, dwarf acacias, and swallowworts
may be found. Some high grass, mixed with balsam, spurge, and
spiny shrubs, grows in the central region. The north has little
vegetation.
Data as of June 1988
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