Adrar Plateau

The Adrar (Arabic: هضبة آدرار, Berber for "mountain"[1]) is a highland natural and historical region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mauritania.

Limited cultivation is only possible in the gorges at lower elevations such like oued Seguellil, where the water table is high enough to support large palm groves.

[2] Features include the Oued el Abiod or 'White Valley', a dune-filled fault line along which many small settlements and palm groves are found.

To the east beyond Ouadane is the distinctive Richat Structure, an uplifted and then heavily eroded dome of strata approximately 40 km across and whose concentric rings resemble an impact crater when observed from space.

[2] The Adrar was settled in the Neolithic era as shown by cave and rock paintings found in the area such as the Agrour Amogjar.

Oblique view of Adrar Plateau from Apollo 9