Encroaching desert threatens to swallow Mauritania's homes, history

Students talk in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. Books line the shelves of one of the libraries in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 3, 2025. Sand surrounds a hut in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. A child rides his bike in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025. Animals roam near homes surrounded by sand in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Jan. 13, 2025. Farmer Med Mahmoud works in his palm tree farm in Chinguetti, Mauritania, Feb. 4, 2025.

For centuries, poets, scholars and theologians have flocked to Chinguetti, a trans-Saharan trading post home to more than a dozen libraries containing thousands of manuscripts.