Fogonazos: Shipwrecks on the coast of Mauritania

The Bay of Nouadhibou, seven miles south from the Mauritanian city, hides one the biggest ship cemeteries in the world. There are more than 300 wrecks around the harbour, resting for years and coming from all nations.

A brief walk through Google Maps will show you hundreds of skeletons piled here and there, at the biggest collection of rusty giant ships you could ever imagine.

However, there isn’t any magic or mystery in this squalid place. For years, Mauritanian harbour officers were so corrupt, that they let ships be discarded in the harbour in exchange of some cash. Discarding a ship is quite expensive for a company, so during the decades, lots of unwanted ships ended up in the Harbour of Nouadibou.

A few years ago, the situation was so out of control, that even Mauritanians started to worry. Nowadays there’s a project from the European Union to refloat all these junk and take them away, or destroy in situ (with explosions) the remaining wrecks.

The city of Nouadhibou is one of the poorest locations in the world. Right over these phantom beaches there are people living inside the huge merchant boats.

Exploring these African beaches is now possible thanks to the work of sites like virtualglobetrotting.com. A short visit will allow you to discover plenty of old shipwrecks all along the coast.

These are some examples (you can click on the maps to explore):