It was an ancient center of worship created by the founders of the oasis city of Chinguetti in the Adrar region of Mauritania in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

The mosque is located within the Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata, a 54.7 ha (135-acre) UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed in 1996.

[3] Architecturally, the structure features a prayer room with four aisles as well as a double-niched symbolic door, or mihrab pointing towards Mecca and an open courtyard.

The twin mihrab and minbar niches are built into the qibla wall, which is typical of the mosques of the region.

[3] Among its most distinctive characteristics are its spare, unmortared, split stone masonry, its square minaret tower, and its conscious lack of adornment, keeping with the strict Malikite beliefs of the city's founders.