Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata — UNESCO World Heritage nomination

The 1996 UNESCO inscription dossier for the four Mauritanian ksour, recognised as a single World Heritage Site under Criteria (iii), (iv), and (v): for their unique witness to a nomadic culture and trans-Saharan trade economy; for their architectural ensembles illustrating seven centuries of human settlement; and for their status as living historic towns representing the last surviving evidence of an original mode of occupying space in a desert environment.

The dossier is significant as the principal English-language institutional document on the Mauritanian ksour, and remains the primary reference for the broader institutional framing of the four towns within the global heritage system.

ICOMOS recommended deferring the inscription, judging the nomination premature; the recommendation was overruled by the World Heritage Committee bureau, which proceeded with the listing.