Leading economic expert Jim Rogers traveled to 150 countries over 150,000 miles in three years – follow his adventures here on FentonReport.

In this video Jim and Paige visit Nouakchott in Mauritania.

Copyright Jim Rogers – provided as a special contribution to The Fenton Report. http://www.fentonreport.com

Nouakchott is the capital and by far the largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara. The city is the administrative and economic centre of Mauritania.

Located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara, it lies on the west coast, on the Atlantic Ocean, although with the exception of Nouakchott Wharf and a deep water port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood.

Due to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. It also often acts as an interface between urban Mauritanians and their nomadic fellow citizens.

Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Abdel Nasir, which runs northeast through the city center from the airport. Other major streets are named (in French) for notable Mauritanian figures, or international personages of the 1960s: Avenue de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example.

Nouakchott is a vital city to Mauritania because of imports and exports, particularly of certain minerals and crops. Nouakchott also has 8 oil blocks off the coast to use.