Sahara: Did you mean...?

In the 5th century BCE, the Carthaginian explorer Hanno sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, out of the Mediterranean and into hitherto unknown territory down the Atlantic coast of Africa. In his search to find new resources and trading...

Sub-Saharan Africa was explored by Roman expeditions between 19 BCE - 90 CE, most likely in an effort to locate the sources of valuable trade goods and establish routes to bring them to the seaports on the coast of North Africa, thereby minimizing...

In the West African desert, gathering and hauling salt is a grueling task, not left for the meek. Camel caravans still move the tablets to market. See all National Geographic videos: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/?source=4001...

The ancient and medieval Mediterranean might have been a bustling stage of ever-changing empires but, across the inhospitable barrier of the Sahara Desert, West Africans were equally busy building up and toppling down their own kingdoms and...

Peoples, cities and states have traded since antiquity but in the medieval period, things escalated so that goods travelled ever greater distances by land, river and sea. Great cities arose thanks to commerce and international trade such...

The Niger River is the most important river in West Africa, and is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile River and Congo River. Known for its distinctive "boomerang" shape, the Niger River flows from the Guinea Highlands to the...

Around 1065, the geopolitical landscape of North Africa and the western Mediterranean was marked by fragmentation, migration, and the rise of new regional powers. Older political structures were weakening, while emergent dynasties and mobile...

Salt slabs on sale at a market in Timbuktu, Mali. Salt from mines in the Sahara desert has been transported to and traded in West Africa since pre-historical times.

Boats transporting slabs of rock salt on the Niger River delta, Mopti, Mali. The salt comes from ancient mines in the Sahara desert.

On the borders of Tassili N'Ajjer in Algeria, also a World Heritage site, this rocky massif has thousands of cave paintings in very different styles, dating from 12,000 B.C. to A.D. 100. They reflect marked changes in the fauna and flora...