The Kaédi Regional Hospital is one of the most architecturally significant buildings in Mauritania, designed by the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. Built in the 1980s, it uses traditional Saharan construction methods — earthen brick, barrel vaults, wind towers — adapted for a modern healthcare facility. The result is a building that stays naturally cool in a brutal climate without air conditioning, a compelling argument for the relevance of traditional building techniques in contemporary West Africa.
The hospital is a working facility and not a tourist attraction in the conventional sense, but it is worth seeing from the outside and, if you explain your interest to staff, it may be possible to see the interior. Architecture students and those interested in sustainable design make a specific point of visiting Kaédi for this building. It is one of the few reasons tourists deliberately stop here rather than merely pass through.