Free The Sahara by Eamonn Gearon

region from their capital, Garama, for close to a thousand years from 600 BCE.
    The Garamantes owed their success entirely to tapping the vast aquifers that lie below the limestone desert floor. By digging an elaborate series of tunnels - or rather making their slaves dig these - they could unleash huge quantities of otherwise hidden water. The fifth-century writer and sometime alchemist Olympiodorus of Thebes wrote of the Garamantes’ tunnels, foggaras in Berber, that they went down as far as 120 feet before releasing free-flowing jets of water. By taking advantage of slave labour and controlling trans-Saharan trade routes, it is thought that the kingdom eventually covered 70,000 square miles.
    Having secured access to water, the Garamantes were able to expand their purview through a successful trade network, in which they again capitalized on their desert location. They dominated the whole eastern portion of the desert and acted as middle men between markets to the north and south. According to Strabo and Pliny, the Garamantes also extracted minerals from the Tibesti Mountains, more than 800 miles from Garama. Apart from salt, gold and semi-precious stones, there is little doubt that the Garamantes also engaged in the slave trade. Turning to Herodotus again, he writes unequivocally: “The Garamantes hunt the Aethiopian hole-men, or troglodytes, in four-horse chariots, for these troglodytes are exceedingly swift of foot-more so than any people of whom we have any information. They eat snakes and lizards and other reptiles and speak a language like no other, but squeak like bats.”
    It is also likely that their growth depended on acquiring ever-larger numbers of slaves. More slaves meant more tunnels dug; greater access to water meant an increase in population. Archaeological digs in Garama, modern Germa, have uncovered an astonishing total of 120,000 graves. From this number of tombs one can extrapolate that the capital and its satellite towns supported a permanent population of not less than 10,000. According to one of the archaeologists responsible, David Mattingly, this was “the first time in history that a non-riverine area of the Sahara... had produced an urban society.” The graves also yielded a wealth of Nubian artefacts, suggesting significant contact between the Garamantes and black tribes of the eastern Sahara.
    Herodotus’ statement about the Garamantes’ use of chariots is supported by numerous examples of rock art from across the Fezzan. Featuring teams of between one and four horses, these often-detailed works clearly show that the Garamantes had great equestrian skills by which they controlled trade along the so-called Garamantean Road, also referred to as the Bilma Trail, which passed through their territory. Running from Tripoli, it cuts through the centre of the Fezzan and on south between the Ahaggar and Tibesti mountains, and via the Kouar escarpment in north-eastern Niger, to Bilma, one of the major centres of the Saharan salt trade.
    By the time the Romans arrived, the Garamantes proved themselves to be a persistent source of annoyance to the newly arrived superpower. When Rome’s fortunes in North Africa were in the ascendant after the destruction of Carthage, the Garamantes felt more than able to meet them head on. Their role as Saharan traders and brokers aside, the Garamantes had long been known for their frequent and successful raids, which saw them going as far north as Carthage, even at the height of Carthaginian power. In spite of their raids, however, the Garamantes were no keener to conquer and settle in the north than were the Carthaginians or Romans to conquer and settle in the central Sahara.
    In time, notably after the Third Punic war, the Romans became less tolerant of Garamantean aggression, and they determined to end the habitual raids. In 20 BCE the Roman proconsul Cornelius Balbus Minor, from Gades, modern Cadiz, was confronted by a revolt among the Saharan tribes, which grew