Aoudaghost

Aoudaghost, also known as Tegdaoust, was a major city in ancient mediaeval West Africa, lying in what is now southeast 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, allied with the Almoravides, invaded Ghana, taking Aoudaghost in 1055. 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.