Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church

The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a Spanish colonial-era Catholic church near the centre of Dakhla, one of the few remaining visible signs of the city's origins as Villa Cisneros. Built in 1941, it is a simple whitewashed building with a modest bell tower, sitting incongruously among the bazaars and government buildings of a predominantly Muslim city.

The church is still active, serving the small Christian community in Dakhla — a mix of Spanish descendants and sub-Saharan African migrants. It is not always open, but the exterior and the small garden around it are accessible. For anyone interested in the layered colonial and political history of the Western Sahara, a walk past this building is worth the five minutes.

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A story
This church was built in 1941 when Dakhla was still Villa Cisneros, a Spanish colonial outpost in the Saharan territory of Spanish West Africa. It remained in use after Morocco took control of the region in 1976 and still serves the small Catholic community in the city. Seeing a Spanish-era colonial church in a Moroccan-controlled Saharan city is a reminder of how many layers of history this contested territory carries.