Laayoune

Laayoune (also written El Aaiún, meaning "The Springs" in Arabic) is the largest city in Western Sahara, founded by a Spanish captain in 1938 and later the administrative capital of Spanish Sahara. Today it sits at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute: it is the de jure capital of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic while remaining under Moroccan administration and UN monitoring. The Spanish-era St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral remains active, and the old lower town built during the colonial period stands south of the dry Saguia el-Hamra riverbed.

• Population262,791
• Nearest water2.6 km
• Nearest mountain4.5 km