These 10 African capital cities have interesting stories behind their names

Nouakchott

Mauritania’s capital city is one of the largest cities in the country. It was founded by Berbers over 300 years ago as a small fishing village.

Nouakchott is taken from the Berber Nawākšūṭ, which means “place of the winds”. As a modern capital city, construction of the area we know now began in 1958 when Mauritania was looking for capital city before independence in 1960.

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