, southeast
Mauritania oasis in northeast
Niger, with the
Kaouar escarpment in the background Ancient trade spanned the northeastern corner of the Sahara in the
Naqadan era.
Predynastic Egyptians in the
Naqada I period traded with
Nubia to the south, the oases of the
Western Desert to the west, and the cultures of the
eastern Mediterranean to the east. Many trading routes went from oasis to oasis to resupply on both food and water. These oases were very important. They also imported
obsidian from
Senegal to shape blades and other objects. The overland route through the
Wadi Hammamat from the
Nile to the
Red Sea was known as early as
predynastic times; drawings depicting Egyptian
reed boats have been found along the path dating to 4000 BCE. Ancient
cities dating to the
First Dynasty of Egypt arose along both its Nile and Red Sea junctions, testifying to the route's ancient popularity. It became a major route from
Thebes to the
Red Sea port of
Elim, where travelers then moved on to either
Asia, Arabia or the
Horn of Africa. Records exist documenting knowledge of the route among
Senusret I, Seti,
Ramesses IV and also, later, the
Roman Empire, especially for mining. The
Darb El Arba'īn trade route, passing through
Kharga in the south and
Asyut in the north, was used from as early as the
Old Kingdom for the transport and trade of
gold,
ivory,
spices,
wheat, animals and plants. Later,
Ancient Romans would protect the route by lining it with varied forts and small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Described by
Herodotus as a road "traversed ... in forty days", it became by his time an important land route facilitating trade between
Nubia and
Egypt, and subsequently became known as the Forty Days Road. From
Kobbei, north of
al-Fashir, the route passed through the desert to Bir Natrum, another oasis and salt mine, to
Wadi Howar before proceeding to Egypt. The
Darb el-Arbain trade route was the easternmost of the central routes. The westernmost of the three central routes was the
Ghadames Road, which ran from the
Niger River at
Gao north to
Ghat and
Ghadames before terminating at
Tripoli. (1895) Next was the easiest of the three routes: the
Garamantean Road, named after the former rulers of the land it passed through and also called the
Bilma Trail. The
Garamantean Road passed south of the desert near
Murzuk before turning north to pass between the
Alhaggar and
Tibesti Mountains before reaching the oasis at
Kawar. From Kawar, caravans would pass over the great sand dunes of
Bilma, where
rock salt was mined in great quantities for trade, before reaching the savanna north of
Lake Chad. This was the shortest of the routes, and the primary exchanges were
slaves and
ivory from the south for salt. One early 20th century researcher wrote of the
Tripoli-Murzuk-Lake Chad route, "Most of the [trans-Saharan] traffic from the Mediterranean coast during the last 2,000 years has passed along this road." Another Libyan route was
Benghazi to
Kufra to the lands of the
Wadai Empire between Lake Chad and Darfur. To the east, three ancient routes connected the south to the Mediterranean. The herdsmen of the
Fezzan of
Libya, known as the Garamantes, controlled these routes as early as 1500 BCE. From their capital of
Germa in the Wadi Ajal, the Garamantean Empire raided north to the sea and south into the Sahel. By the 4th century BCE, the independent city-states of
Phoenicia had expanded their control to the territory and routes once held by the Garamantes. Trade continued into Roman times. Although there are Classical references to direct travel from the Mediterranean to West Africa (Daniels, p. 22f), most of this trade was conducted through middlemen, inhabiting the area and aware of passages through the drying lands. The
Legio III Augusta subsequently secured these routes on behalf of
Rome by the 1st century CE, safeguarding the southern border of the empire for two and half centuries. Early records of
trans-Saharan slave trade come from
ancient Greek historian
Herodotus in the 5th century BCE, who records the Garamantes enslaving cave-dwelling Egyptians in Sudan. Two records of Romans accompanying the Garamantes on slave raiding expeditions are recorded - the first in 86 CE and the second a few years later to
Lake Chad. In the 5th century CE,
Roman Carthage was trading in black slaves brought across the Sahara. Black slaves seem to have been valued in the Mediterranean as household slaves for their exotic appearance. Some historians argue that the scale of slave trade in this period may have been higher than medieval times due to high demand of slaves in the Roman Empire. ==Introduction of the camel==