Ouara

Ouara was founded as the capital of the Ouaddaï sultanate in the seventeenth century and abandoned in the nineteenth when the court moved to Abéché because the water failed, and what remains is a walled site on the plain with the ruins of the palace, the great mosque with its minaret still partly standing, and a scatter of houses and tombs, all in mud brick eroding steadily. Water failure rather than conflict is generally given as the reason the court left, which makes the site a clear case of a capital defeated by its own hydrology.

What you actually see

• The mosque minaret - the tower still partly standing at the ruined mosque.
• The palace remains - the walls of the sultan's residence.
• The enclosure - the walled outline of the abandoned capital.
• The tombs - the burials on the site.

When to go

November to February is the cool season. March to May is extremely hot with no shade. Rain accelerates the erosion of the mud brick.

Honest expectations

Everything is eroding mud brick and the site takes reading. There is no interpretation or facility. A guide from Abéché is worth taking to find it.

Nearby

Abéché is south, and the Sudanese border is east.