Tichit

This region includes a long sandstone cliff formation that defines the northern limit of the Hodh depression, near the former lake of Aoukar.{{cite web |last1=Kjeilen |first1=Tore |title=TICHIT The living ghost of yesterday's glory |url=http://looklex.com/mauritania/tichit.htm |website=LookLex |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522204054/http://looklex.com/mauritania/tichit.htm |archive-date=2020-05-22}}

The Neolithic sites of Dhar Tichitt were settled around 2000 BC by agropastoral communities known as the Tichitt culture.{{sfn|Holl|2009}} Archaeologists including P.J. Munson, Augustin F.C. Holl, and S. Amblard have found some evidence that millet was farmed there from the date of the communities' foundation. The settlements were generally situated on the cliffs and included stone buildings. They are the oldest surviving archaeological settlements in West Africa and the oldest stone-built settlements south of the Sahara. They are thought to have been built by the proto-Soninke people and were possibly the precursor of the Ghana Empire.{{sfn|Munson|1980}}{{citation | last=Fage | first=J.D | year=1976 | title=The Cambridge history of Africa, Volume 5 | publisher= Cambridge University Press | place=Cambridge | pages=338, 339 | isbn=978-0-521-21592-3 }}.{{citation | last=Coquery-Vidrovitch | first=Catherine | year=2005 | title=The History of African Cities South of the Sahara | place=Princeton | publisher=Markus Wiener | pages=42, 43 | isbn=978-1-55876-303-6}}. Hundreds of rock art images have been discovered, depicting various animals and hunting scenes.{{sfn|Holl|2002}} The area was abandoned around 500 BC probably because of the onset of more arid conditions.

The area around Tichit was part of Maasina, the Fula term for the Dhar Tichitt-Walata-Néma region and origin of the name Massina for the Inner Niger Delta.{{cite book |last1=Kane |first1=Oumar |title=La première hégémonie peule. Le Fuuta Tooro de Koli Teηella à Almaami Abdul |date=2004 |publisher=Karthala |location=Paris |url=https://www.cairn.info/la-premiere-hegemonie-peule--9782845865211-page-114.htm |access-date=12 July 2023}} Al-Bakri's 11th century chronicle records a war between 'Masin' and nearby Awgham. The oldest population strata in Tichit consists of an Afro-Berber group still called the Imasna.{{Cite book |last1=al-Sadi |first1=Abd |title=Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa'Di's Ta'Rikh Al-Sudan Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents |last2=Hunwick |first2=John |publisher=Brill Academic |year=2003 |isbn=978-9004128224 |p=31 }}

The town of Tichitt was founded in the 12th century as a caravan stop on the Trans-Saharan trade route linking Oualâta to Chinguetti and eventually Sijilmasa. According to legend, seven towns have been built on top of each other at the site.{{cite journal |last1=Ould Ebnou |first1=Moussa |title=The Treasures in Mauritania's dunes |journal=The UNESCO Courier |date=2000 |volume=53 |issue=12 |pages=26-8 |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000121335 |access-date=13 August 2024}}

The Azer dialect of Soninke was spoken in Tichit from the era of the Wagadou Empire until the early 20th century.{{cite journal |last1=McDougall |first1=E. Ann |title=The View from Awdaghust: War, Trade and Social Change in the Southwestern Sahara, from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century |journal=The Journal of African History |date=1985 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=1-31|doi = 10.1017/S0021853700023069}} The name 'Tichit' may be derived from a term meaning 'language of the blacks' in the Tuareg languages.Michael J Rueck; Niels Christiansen. [http://www.sil.org/silesr/1999/008/nsonghay.html Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey]. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).

The town was self-sufficient and boasted several thousand inhabitants in the early 20th century, but desertification and sand encroachment have led to the abandonment of many structures. In 1996, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1999, torrential rains caused flooding that damaged 80% of the town.

File:The Mosque of Tichitt.jpg|The Mosque of Tichitt

File:A door in Tichit.png|A decorated door in Tichit

File:Tichitt architecture.jpg|A street in Tichitt

File:Tichit Architecture.jpg|Open space

File:تيشت (منظر علوي 1).jpg|A view of the ancient town of Tichit

File:تيشت (منظر علوي 2).jpg|Some modern housing visible in the foreground with many other abandoned historical buildings

{{Weather box

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|Jan high C=29.8

|Feb high C=32.9

|Mar high C=37.5

|Apr high C=40.4

|May high C=42.5

|Jun high C=42.0

|Jul high C=38.6

|Aug high C=35.8

|Sep high C=37.5

|Oct high C=38.7

|Nov high C=35.3

|Dec high C=31.6

|Jan low C=16.2

|Feb low C=19.2

|Mar low C=23.8

|Apr low C=26.9

|May low C=29.9

|Jun low C=30.5

|Jul low C=28.2

|Aug low C=26.6

|Sep low C=27.0

|Oct low C=27.0

|Nov low C=22.2

|Dec low C=18.1

|Jan precipitation mm=0

|Feb precipitation mm=1

|Mar precipitation mm=0

|Apr precipitation mm=1

|May precipitation mm=1

|Jun precipitation mm=6

|Jul precipitation mm=15

|Aug precipitation mm=32

|Sep precipitation mm=19

|Oct precipitation mm=3

|Nov precipitation mm=1

|Dec precipitation mm=0

|source 1=http://www.storm247.com/weather/110676228/climate (temperature)

|source 2=http://www.levoyageur.net/weather-city-TICHITT.html (precipitation)

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{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{citation | last=Holl | first=Augustin F.C. | year=2002 | title=Time, space, and image making: rock art from the Dhar Tichitt (Mauritania) | journal=African Archaeological Review | volume=19 | issue=2 | pages=75–118 | jstor=25130740 | doi = 10.1023/A:1015479826570 | hdl=2027.42/43991 | s2cid=54741966 | url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43991/1/10437_2004_Article_373030.pdf | hdl-access=free }}.
• {{citation | last=Holl | first=Augustin F.C. | year=2009 | title=Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, (ca. 4000–2300 BP) | journal=Comptes Rendus Geoscience | volume=341 | issue=8–9 | pages=703–712 | url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248548075 | doi=10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005}}.
• {{citation | last=Munson | first= Patrick J. | year=1980 | title= Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana Empire | journal= Journal of African History | volume=21 | issue= 4 | pages=457–466 | jstor= 182004 | doi=10.1017/s0021853700018685| s2cid= 161981607 }}.

• {{cite journal | last=Holl | first=Augustin | year=1985 | title=Subsistence patterns of the Neolithic, Mauritania | journal=African Archaeological Review | volume=3 | pages=151–162 | jstor=25130453 | doi=10.1007/bf01117458}}
• {{cite journal| last=Holl | first=Augustin F.C. | year=1998 | title=Livestock husbandry, pastoralisms, and territoriality: the West African record | journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | volume=17 | issue=2 | pages=143–165 | doi=10.1006/jaar.1998.0321}}
• {{cite journal | last1= MacDonald | first1= Kevin | last2= Vernet | first2= Robert| last3= Fuller | first3= Dorian | last4= Woodhouse | first4= James | year=2003 | title= New light on the Tichitt tradition: A preliminary report on survey and excavation at Dhar Nema | journal= Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph | volume=57 | pages=73–80 | url=http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/articles/McDonaldVernetFullerWoodhouse.pdf }}

• {{citation | publisher=République Islamique de Mauritanie Sheet NE-29-XV | title=Map showing Tichit: Fond Typographique 1:200,000 | url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_qVkuJA2pRAQzZRMFd3Y210SkE/view | ref=none}}

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Category:Communes of Mauritania

Category:World Heritage Sites in Mauritania

Category:Prehistoric Africa

Category:Archaeological sites in Mauritania