Aoudaghost

Aoudaghost, also known as Tegdaoust was a major city in ancient and mediaeval West Africa, lying in what is now south east Mauritania. It was founded around the fifth century BC as a commercial centre at the southern end of trans-Saharan trade routes.

The settlement grew as the domestication of the camel made journeys easier, but suffered as aridity increased and the local grasslands turned to desert. The city was captured by the Ghana Empire in about 1050, just before Tekrur invaded Ghana, taking Aoudaghost. From the twelfth century, the city was dominated by the Mali Empire, but a gradual decline set in and the town was abandoned in the seventeenth century.