Nouakchott (/nwækˈʃɒt, nwɑː-/ nwa(h)k-SHOT; French: [nwakʃɔt]; Arabic: نواكشوط, romanized: Nwākshūṭ, Hassaniyya: [nwakʃuːtˤ] ⓘ; Wolof: Nuwaaksoot; Pulaar: Nuwaasoot; Soninke: Nuwasooto; Berber: Nwakcoṭ, originally derived from Berber: Nawākšūṭ, 'place of the winds'[2] or alternatively Zenaga: in wakchodh, 'having no ears')[3] is the capital and largest city of Mauritania.

Once a mid-sized coastal village, Nouakchott was selected as the capital for the nascent nation of Mauritania, with construction beginning in 1958.

The area of present-day Nouakchott was chosen by Moktar Ould Daddah, the first President of Mauritania, and his advisors.

Ould Daddah desired the new capital to symbolize modernity and national unity, which ruled out existing cities or towns in the interior.

Its location also meant that it avoided the sensitive issue of whether the capital was built in an area dominated by the Arabs, Amazigh (Berbers) or Sub-Saharan Africans.

[7]: 369 Construction began in March 1958 to enlarge the village to house a population of 15,000, in 1959 Nouakchott started with its founding by indigenous people from the surrounding region,[8] and the basics were completed by the time that the French granted independence on 28 November 1960.

By the 1970s, these new areas had grown so much that they replaced the old ksar in terms of importance, as they also hosted the governmental buildings and state enterprises.

[7]: 369 The city was attacked twice in 1976 by the Polisario Front during the Western Sahara conflict, but the guerrillas caused little damage.

The city has had massive and unconstrained growth, driven by the North African drought, since the beginning of the 1970s; hundreds of thousands moved there in search of a better life.

[16] Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, which runs northeast through the city centre from the airport.

[18] The kebbe consists of cement buildings that are built overnight and made to look permanent to avoid destruction by the authorities.

[21][22] According to Climate Action Tracker, the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 °C (4.9 °F), which closely matches RCP 4.5.

[24] The desert climate causes dust accumulation, which negatively impacts the performance of photovoltaic solar panels.

[25] Nouakchott is divided into three administrative regions (wilayat) led by governors appointed by the central government, each of which contains three departments (moughataa): Separate from the wilayat, a directly elected regional council was established in Nouakchott in 2018, which took over the roles of promoting social and economic development from the Urban Community that it replaced.

[11] In 2009, the government of Mauritania announced that it would begin a process of clearing the slum on the outskirts of Nouakchott, as 24,000 families would eventually be relocated to planned housing in the city.

The Capital downtown area is home to the headquarters of multiple major national banks and companies and the site of a cluster of open-air markets.

The city is the focus of many modernization and foreign investment projects, with two five-star hotels finishing construction in 2024.

[49] Nouakchott, like the rest of the country, is populated by a Sunni Muslim super-majority,[clarification needed] and mosques are extremely common in neighborhoods.