Oualata or Walata 's a small oasis town in south east Mauritania that was important in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as the southern terminus of trans-Saharan trade. History It's believed to have been first settled by an agro-pastoral people akin to the Mandé Soninke who lived along the rocky promontories of the Tichitt-Oualata and Tagant cliffs of Mauritania. There, they built what're among the oldest stone settlements on the African continent. Oualata originally formed part of… (More on Oualata)