Mauritania Regions

Mauritania is a country of a million square kilometres in which most of the land is desert and most of the people are in a few places: the capital on the coast, the towns along the Senegal river, and the oases and railway stops between. Its regions (wilayas) are how any of it is placed, from the Adrar and its date palms to the two Hodhs that fill the east.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Where they sit: the north, the centre, the east, the river valley and Nouakchott
In the game: 15 regions

Start

What you are looking at

The 15 regions (wilayas) of Mauritania, the first tier of the country. Twelve cover the land, and the capital, Nouakchott, is cut into three of its own: Nord, Ouest and Sud. Those three are the smallest answers on the map, a few hundred square kilometres each on the coast, and the game gives them tap areas.

The northern regions are enormous and nearly empty. Tiris Zemmour alone is a quarter of the country. The south is the opposite, with small regions packed along the river that marks the border with Senegal.

The groups are informal. Mauritania has no tier between its regions and the country, so these are the ones people use to place a region in conversation. They are not administrative, and the borders of the regions match those of the Mauritania Departments exactly.

How to place one

Start with the three biggest. Tiris Zemmour, Adrar and Hodh Chargui fill the north and the east.
Follow the river. Trarza, Brakna, Gorgol and Guidimagha run along the Senegal border from the coast to the Mali corner.
Pair the Hodhs. Hodh Chargui and Hodh El Gharbi share a stem and sit one beside the other, east and west.
Put the capital on the coast last. The three Nouakchott regions are where Trarza meets the Atlantic.