Nouadhibou

Nouadhibou is Mauritania's second-largest city, on the 65-kilometer Ras Nouadhibou peninsula in the Dakhlet Nouadhibou Region, with a population of 173,525 as of 2023. Founded in 1906 as a Portuguese-controlled fishing port, it was renamed Port-Etienne under French colonial rule in 1907 and reverted to Nouadhibou after Mauritania's independence in 1960, and in the early twentieth century it served as a stopover on the Latecoere air-transport network. Fishing is its largest economic activity, alongside processing of iron ore railed in from mines 704 kilometers inland, and its harbor holds the world's largest ship graveyard, with more than 300 vessels scuttled there over the years. Since 2006 the city has also become a major departure point for African migrants attempting to reach Europe's Canary Islands.