Río de Oro: Difference between revisions

'''Río de Oro''' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]] for "[[Gold]] River", [[Arabic language|Arabic]]: وادي الذهب ''wādī-að-ðahab'', often transliterated as Oued Edhahab), is, with [[Saguia el-Hamra]], one of the two territories that formed the [[Spain|Spanish]] province of [[Spanish Sahara]] after 1969; it was originally taken as a Spanish colonial possession in the late 19th century. Its name seems to come from an east-west [[river]] which was supposed to have run through it formerly. The river was thought to have largely dried out - a [[wadi]], as the name indicates - or have disappeared underground.

 

 

Occupying the southern part of [[Western Sahara]], the territory lies between 26° to the north and 21° 20' to the south. The area is roughly 71,042 mi.² (184,000 km²), making it approximately two-thirds of the entire territory. The former provincial capital founded by the [[Spain|Spanish]] [[colonialism|colonizers]] was ''Villa Cisneros'', while the town's name under Moroccan administration has become [[Dakhla, Western Sahara|ad-Dakhla]] .