Nouadhibou is Mauritania's second city and its main port, sitting on the narrow Cap Blanc peninsula that juts into the Atlantic on the border with Western Sahara. For most travellers it is a transit point — the entry from Morocco after the long desert crossing, or the departure point for the iron ore train to Zouerate.
The city itself is functional rather than beautiful, but it has one of the world's most remarkable sights for the adventurous: a vast ship graveyard offshore, where dozens of rusting hulks lie beached in the shallow waters. The fishing port is busy and atmospheric, and the Cap Blanc peninsula has seal colonies that are among the last populations of Mediterranean monk seals in the world. South of the peninsula tip lies La Güera, an abandoned Spanish town slowly being swallowed by the dunes.