The Maghreb (المغرب العربي ; also rendered Maghrib (or rarely Moghreb), meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is the region of Africa north of the Sahara Desert and west of the Nile — specifically, coinciding with the Atlas Mountains. Geopolitically, the area includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, Western Sahara, and sometimes Mauritania, which is often placed in West Africa instead. Except Western Sahara, all these countries are member states of the Arab Maghreb Union.