Aoudaghost also transliterated as Awadaghust, Awdughast, Awdaghusht, Awdaghost, and Awdhaghurst (Arabic: أودغست) is a former Berber town in Hodh El Gharbi, Mauritania.

[1] It was an important oasis town at the southern end of a trans-Saharan caravan route that is mentioned in a number of early Arabic manuscripts.

The earliest mention of Aoudaghost is by al-Yaqubi in his Kitab al-Buldan completed in 889-890 in which he described the town as being controlled by a tribe of the Sanhaja and situated 50 stages south of Sijilmasa across the Sahara Desert.

[4] From Ibn Hawqal writing in around 977 we learn that the distance from Aoudaghost to Ghana (presumably the capital of the Empire) was 10 days' journey for a lightly loaded caravan.

[8]Al-Idrisi, writing in Sicily in 1154, suggests that by the middle of the 12th century Aoudaghost was in decline: "This is a small town in the desert, with little water. ...

[10] By the beginning of the 13th century the oasis town of Oualata situated 360 km (220 mi) to the east had replaced Aoudaghost as the southern terminus of the major trans-Saharan caravan routes.

Al-Bakri made use of earlier sources and it is likely that his description of Aoudaghost comes from the writings of Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Warraq (904-973) whose own account has not survived:[12] Then to Awdaghust which is a large town, populous and built on sandy ground, overlooked by a big mountain, completely barren and devoid of vegetation.

He reveals that the city and indeed all of West Africa will soon be raided and destroyed; their achievements and culture will fall into oblivion while the currently "squalid" Europe will rise.