Legion Fort: Chegga

This former French Saharan fort is located in extreme N/E Mauritania in an area known as Chegga.  Looking at the map it appears that Chegga was located at a gap in the Hank Plateau that allowed passage northwest toward Morocco.  Chegga apparently had a water source and was a well known caravan stop-over for several centuries.  A caravansary (Bordj) is pictured on slide 2 and there are several references to this location being used as a way station on the Galica website.  This is a very isolated route that some travelers have used to get to Algeria–entering via Tindouf.  The Legion motorized companies, but more often the Saharan (camel mounted) Companies, patrolled this area (see previous post on Ain Ben Tili).  A more modern description of Chegga would paint it as a region overrun with bandits, smugglers, Polisario insurgents as well as Al-Qaida affiliated terrorists.  Not recommended as a place for westerners.  The fort itself, located a bit south of the actual Chegga area, is in surprisingly good condition from what I can tell from Google Maps.  It’s buildings all seem to have roofs and it appears to be occupied (probably by the Armed Forces of Mauritania).    I have not been able to find any further information on its use by the French other than it was built around 1934 along with several other forts in the same area and for the same reason.  Also, Imay not have the relationship between the Chegga oasis and the fort very clear because I could not detect any other structures around where the map says that there should be a Bordj.  Anyone who knows more about this Fort please feel free to comment below.

Fort Chegga