Kite surfing capital of Africa — a 40km Atlantic lagoon with flat water and constant wind, Saharan dunes reaching the ocean, and the disputed Western Saharan frontier
Dakhla is a peninsula city in Western Sahara (administered by Morocco, claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) — at 23.7°N on the Atlantic coast, 560km south of Agadir and 350km north of Mauritania, on a 40km-long tongue of land extending south into the Dakhla lagoon (Oued Eddahab bay). The Dakhla lagoon is one of the world's premier kite surfing destinations: the trade winds (the Alizee — consistent northeast wind of 15-25 knots) blow across the lagoon from June to February, the shallow flat water of the bay's sheltered eastern side provides ideal conditions for freestyle and wave k…
Western Sahara is the last disputed territory in Africa — a former Spanish colony (Spanish Sahara, administered 1884-1975) claimed by both Morocco (which administers approximately 80% of the territory) and the Polisario Front backed by Algeria, which controls the eastern desert strip and administers Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. Spain withdrew in 1975 under the Green March pressure (King Hassan II of Morocco organized 350,000 Moroccan civilians to march into the territory); the subsequent conflict (1975-1991) resulted in the current stalemate, with a UN-mandated ceasefire and a…