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The gold trade was already spreading to influence commerce and society in the Mediterranean, and it was at around 1000 CE that West African gold was first minted for markets in Europe. By the 10 th century CE there were separate settlements for those practicing African religions and those practising Islam at Koumbi-Saleh, indicating the large number of North African traders who were coming. By the 9 th century CE, the empire of Ghāna had been founded in what is now Mauritania, with the capital at Koumbi-Saleh. But the growth of powerful Islamic kingdoms in Morocco, and of centres of learning based in Cairo, Tripoli, and the Middle East, saw the rise of the caravan trade. By the time of the rise of Islam, in the early 7 th century CE, there were fewer connections. His military supplies were carried by elephants, and these were African elephants connected to the peoples and geographies south of the Sahara.ĭesertification increased and the geographical boundaries became harder to cross. Carthage was an empire based in Libya, and around 220 BCE Hannibal embarked on an attack on Roman forces in Europe which involved crossing the high Alps mountain range. This is shown by the Carthaginian general, Hannibal. The Sahara appears to have begun desertifying more rapidly around 3000 years BCE, but there remained strong connections with the Mediterranean until a later point. The Ice Age was not a problem in Africa, and in fact this seems to have been a time of plenty. It’s important to bear in mind that this era of fertility in the Sahara coincided with the European Ice Age. These old paintings show areas which are now in the desert as fertile, rich with animals which can no longer live in these desert areas, such as buffalos, elephants, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. Another good example is in the Tibesti Massif in Chad, which also has rock art dating from around this time. This is one of the oldest examples of rock art in the Sahara. A good example is the Tassili n’Ajjer, north of Tamanrasset in the Algerian Sahara.

Rock art from the Sahara desert is abundant, and some of it is as much as 12000 years old. It’s important to know that the Sahara desert itself was not as harsh in these ancient times as it later became, and is today. Fondazione Passaré, Fondazione Passaré V1 057, CC BY-SA 3.0 Rock art from this period, and later, suggests the existence of wheeled chariots south of what is now the Sahara, and suggest a connection with the Mediterranean world. Herodotus wrote repeatedly of the peoples of the Nile Valley, stressing that many of them were Black Africans, and suggesting connections with people further to the west.

Several centuries before the rise of the Roman empire, the Greek historian Herodotus (c. The connections of West Africa with the Mediterranean world is a very old one, which long predates the rise of Islam in the late 6 th century CE.

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