It is located to the southwest of the Hotel Mercure Marhaba, west of Hotel de Ville, northwest of Parc Deydouh, and northeast of the Mosque Ould Abas.

[2] It contains two galleries that showcase collections of sherds, arrowheads, and local costumes.

[3] The National Museum is housed in a two-storey building constructed in 1972 by the Chinese.

The museum's archaeological collections display Mousterian, Aterian and Neolithic artifacts as well as holdings from excavations carried out in several historic Mauritanian cities such as Koumbi Saleh, Aoudaghost, Tichit, Ouadane and Azougui.

The ethnographic collections contain objects belonging to different cultures of the Mauritanian society.