Mauritania Iron Ore Train - The Best Train Journey in the World

Mauritania’s Iron Ore Train.

At one million square kilometers, Mauritania is not a small country, but a very small percentage of it is habitable. The rest is covered by the sands of the Sahara. Towns and settlements are separated by vast stretches of inhospitable desert.

The mining town of Zouérat in northern Mauritania is one such isolated outpost. Zouérat’s only connection to the city of Nouadhibou, the country’s only major shipping port on the Atlantic coast, is via a railway. This railway not only helps drive half the economy of Mauritania, it is also the sole connection to the outside world for the people who live along its route.

The Mauritania Railway was opened in 1963. Over the decades as the industry evolved, many new iron ore deposits were discovered in the region and half a dozen or so communities sprang up along the railway tracks. For the people living in these settlements, the train is their only link to civilization.

Every evening, a long train hauling iron ore leaves Zouérat for Nouadhibou, dragging as many as two hundred wagons brimming with hematite. The train stretches for 2.5 kilometers. The journey is long and miserable. The open-air top provides no respite from the scorching heat of the day and the frigid air of the night. Some passengers dig small holes in the iron ore pile and build stoves, burning charcoal to make tea.

After a 17-hour-long arduous journey, the train arrives at Nouadhibou, where the ore-blackened passengers climb down from their perches and unload their cargo. Three hours later, the train is back at Nouadhibou’s station for the return trip.

The train crawls through the desert, travelling at no more than 50 kilometers per hour. When it passes through towns it slows down allowing passengers to disembark and others to hop aboard.Subsribe on Happy Traveler - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7ViK_fZPd3-3XzIgQKWYg?sub_confirmation=1

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