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The world's largest ship graveyard

Nouadhibou is the last anchorage for hundreds of ships

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Ras Nouadhibou is a peninsula stretching along the west coast of Africa. It is shared by Mauritaniaand the Northern Sahara. The eastern part of the coast belongs to Mauritania. Nouadhibou, a city of about 100,000 people, is the second largest city in Mauritania and the economic capital of the region. However, it is better known in the world as the largest ship graveyard.

On the coast of Nouadhibou more than three hundred ships are living - for the past 30 years they have been brought here on their last voyage from all over the world.

The first name - Port Etienne - was given to the town by French traders shortly before the First World War. The west coast of the bay attracted them, as it served as a good shelter from the harsh waters of the Atlantic. Originally, the local economy was based on fishing and trading, but the bay's unique location made it ideal for ship trading.

Thanks to the iron ore deposits on the peninsula, Nuadibu quickly developed as a commercial port. But as the law of the genre dictates, big money and lawlessness did the trick. At the time, nothing was impossible for a businessman with money in Nouadhibou. Among other things, one could easily bypass environmental regulations for burying old engines (not for free, of course), which was taken advantage of by those who benefited from it.

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