Ras Nouadhibou

Geographical location

Ras Nouadhibou (Arabic رأس نواذيبو, DMG Ra ʾ s Nawāḏībū, formerly French Cap Blanc, Spanish Cabo Blanco ) is a narrow, 40 -kilometer-long peninsula, which is roughly equal to the territory of Mauritania and the Western Sahara. The south-facing promontory ends on the same chap. The bay, which lies between the peninsula and the mainland coast of Mauritania, is named Dakhlet Nouadhibou, the colonial period: Baie du Lévrier.

The border runs through the peninsula to the Cape and has been set in this form in 1912 between the colonial powers Spain and France. Today, the western part belongs to the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, the eastern part to Mauritania.

The second largest city in Mauritania, Nouadhibou, formerly Port- Étienne, located on the east side protected; few kilometers away colonial Age settlement La Gouira on the west coast was abandoned.

On a sandy coves below the steep limestone cliffs lives on the southern tip of a small colony of rare Mediterranean monk seals.