1. Routes Across the Sahara
Routes Across the Sahara

2. The Sahara
The Sahara is windswept Sahara, a desert stretching from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and broken only by the Nile River.
The Sahara isolates sub-Saharan Africa from the Mediterranean world.
The current dryness of the Sahara dates only to about 2500 B.C.E
Sprawling sand dunes, sandy plains, and vast expanses of exposed rock make up most of the great desert
Barren and rugged mountain and highland areas separate its northern and southern portions.

3. Saharan Trade Routes
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By 300 B.C.E., scarcity of water was restricting travel to a few difficult routes.
These routes were known as trans-Saharan caravan routes.
The trans-Saharan caravan routes were usually traveled by desert nomads that had adapted to the desert’s tough climate.
These routes were used to transport goods from Mediterranean Africa to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Without the use of these routes cultures would not have been able to survive below the Sahara desert.

4. Early Saharan Cultures
Cliffs and caves were the only places where water could be found in the Sahara.
In these cliffs and caves rock paintings were found suggesting that people lived there.
Overlaps in the artwork indicate that the hunting societies were gradually joined by new cultures based on cattle breeding and well adapted to the sparse grazing that remained.
Domestic cattle may have originated in North Africa but definitely reached the Sahara before it dried out.
The beautiful paintings of cattle and scenes of daily life seen in the Saharan rock art depict pastoral societies that bear little similarity to any in western Asia

5.
Animals in the Sahara
The nomadic peoples of the Sahara were cattle herders.
Overlaps in artwork show that horse herders succeeded cattle herders.
Horses dragging light chariots were used to cross the desert.
Camels first appeared in the Sahara at about 46 B.C.E.
Camels were more efficient to cross the Sahara because they did not need as much water and could pull the same weight horses could.

6. Trade Across the Sahara
Trade Across the Sahara
Linkage between two different trading systems, one in the south, the other in the north, developed slowly.
Southern traders concentrated on supplying salt from large deposits in the southern desert to the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa.
Traders from the equatorial forest zone brought forest products, such as kola nuts and edible palm oil, to trading centers near the desert’s southern fringe.
Each received the products they needed in their homelands from the other, or from the farming peoples of the southern coast.
Roman colonists were north of the Sahara ad supplied Italy with wheat and olives.

7. ?????Quiz?????
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1.The Sahara stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the ____ sea and is broken up by the Nile river.
A. Baltic B. Red C. Mediterranean D. Black E.Caspian
2. What year were camels first introduced into the Sahara?
46 B.C.E B. 12 C.E C. 24 C.E D. 46 C.E E. 5 C.E
3. Southern Traders concentrated on supplying what to the peoples of the sub-Sahara.
A. Wheat B. Olives C. Wine D. Salt E. Rice

8. Bibliography
Books
1.Bulliet, Richard W. The Earth and it’s People. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985
Websites
1. Martin, Phillip. "Trans-Sahara Trade Routes." Ancient African Kingdoms. Clips Ahoy. Web. 19 Oct <
2.Unknown. "Saharan Trade: A Link Between Europe and Africa." Thinkquest.org. Unknown. Web. 19 Oct <