La Güera
La Güera
ⵜⴰⴳⵡⵉⵔⵜ الكويرة | |
|---|---|
Ghost town | |
 La Güera ruins viewed from Mauritania, January 2003 | |
  La Güera Location in Western Sahara | |
| Coordinates: 20°50′N 17°5′W / 20.833°N 17.083°W | |
| Claimed by | Kingdom of Morocco Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic |
| Controlled by | Islamic Republic of Mauritania |
| Founded | 30 November 1920 |
| Time zone | GMT |
La Güera (also known as Tagwirt, Lagouira, or El Gouera) (Berber: ⵜⴰⴳⵡⵉⵔⵜ, Arabic: الكويرة) is a ghost town on the Atlantic coast at the southern tip of Western Sahara. It is on the western side of the Ras Nouadhibou peninsula. The ghost town is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of Nouadhibou. It is also the name of a daira at the Sahrawi refugee camps in south-western Algeria. The name comes from the Spanish word Agüera which is a ditch which carries rainwater to the crops. By 2002, it had been abandoned and parts of it had been covered by sand. At the time, only a few Imraguen fishermen lived there[1][2] and the area was guarded and controlled by a Mauritanian military outpost, despite this not being formally Mauritanian territory.[2]
La Güera is the southernmost town of Western Sahara. It is claimed by both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Lagouira is situated south of the Moroccan Wall, and abandoned by both Moroccan and POLISARIO forces.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ (in French)Abdallah Ben Ali, Guéguerre à Lagouira, Maroc Hebdo International, issue 534, 22–28 November 2002
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 (in French) Redouane Ramdani, Enquête: Aux frontières du réel Archived 2013-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, TelQuel, issue 248, 18–24 November 2004