Garamantes

A tribe mentioned by the historian Herodotus who lived in the deserts of Northern Africa; Herodotus described them as hunters and farmers who grew their crops on soil they placed on top of the desert salt and used their four-horse teams to hunt the cave-dwelling Ethiopians.

Recent excavations in the African desert of south-western Libya have given us a new appreciation for the Garamantes and their culture; they are now believed to have had at least three large cities and twenty smaller communities which supported a population of perhaps fifty thousand citizens.

Their cities and farms were vitalized by an extensive network of underground irrigation canals which extended for thousands of miles and provided water to nourish the harsh desert environment.

During the rise and pentacle of the Roman Empire, the Garamantes traded in gold, ivory and slaves; the population and culture slowly began to diminish as trade with Rome and other wealthy Mediterranean cities came to an end; the lack of trade and the gradual lowering of the water table sealed the fate of the Garamantes and by 700 CE they were, for all practical purposes, forgotten by history.

• Histories, book 4, chapter 183-184