African Kingdoms

Garamantes / Mande of the Fezzan
c.400 BC - AD 400

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The continent of Africa forms a vast collection of varying communities and cultures. North Africa is very different to sub-Saharan Africa, with a great section of the north - to the west of Egypt - being known for several millennia as Libya.

Much of its population has always lived close to the coastline because a very large proportion of the area of modern Libya is formed by desert - up to ninety percent. The Sahara Desert is a relatively recent returning phenomenon, its latest appearance dating across the last four thousand years or so (and see feature link for more on this). The southern and western corner of the modern Libyan state was home to a very different civilisation.

The Garamantes amount to a lost Saharan civilisation, one which today is little known. Even the only names for them are Greek: Garamantes, or Mande of the Fezzan ('Mande' has the same root as the second part of 'Gara-mante').

This warrior culture flourished from about 1100 BC between areas of southern ancient Libya, in the Fezzan (south-western Libya, near modern Germa), and sub-Saharan Africa, centred on the middle of the Sahara itself. Largely their territory encompassed the western half of modern Libya, but without dominating more than a small slice of the Mediterranean coastline even at their peak.

Inhabiting an area around the busiest of the ancient trans-Saharan crossroads, the Garamantes were settled around three parallel areas of oases which today are known as the Wadi al-Ajal (Fazzan), the Wadi ash-Shati, and the Zuwila-Murzuq-Burjuj depression with its capital at Jarmah (a derivation of 'Garamantes').

Coming to prominence around the fourth century BC, Garamantes civilisation was unique. Its foundation is believed to have marked the first time in history in which a riverless area of a major desert was settled by a complex urban society which planned its towns and imported luxury goods. Indeed the sophistication of Garamantian building design, not least of its fortifications, may have been copied by the imperial Romans, some of whose forts in North Africa are strikingly similar in appearance.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The Garamantes and Trans-Saharan Enterprise in Classical Times, R C C Law (The Journal of African History, Vol 8, No 2, 1967), from The Garamantes of Central Sahara, Raymond A Dart (African Studies, Vol 11, Issue 1, March 1952), from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from The Cambridge Ancient History, John Boardman, N G L Hammond, D M Lewis, & M Ostwald (Eds), from The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium: Niketas, Walter Emil Kaegi (Alexander P Kazhdan, Ed, Oxford University Press, 1991), and from External Links: Saharan and trans-Saharan contacts and trade in the Roman era, Dr Caitlin R Green, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Carthage (Ancient History Encyclopaedia), and Roman Realities, Finley Hooper (Wayne State University Press, 1979, and available via Internet Archive).)

c.900 BC

The earliest capital of the Garamantes appears to be Zinchecra, which is first occupied around this time. It is situated on a mountain spur to the south of the Wadi Al-Ajal in modern Libya. The Garamantes themselves are a tribal people at this time, and probably pursue a way of life which is mostly nomadic.

The Sahara has undergone a gradual transition from sweeping grassland to dessicated sand on more than one occasion, notably around 30,000 BC (and again around 2000 BC)

c.400 - 200 BC

The civilisation has already emerged by this time and now reaches a peak of advancement and spread. A new capital is soon founded at Garama (Jarmah) on the southern edge of today's Lake Mandara (desert), directly to the south of Tripoli and about two-thirds of the way towards the border with Niger.

The construction of water-mining tunnels also reaches its apogee, as does the trade in sub-Saharan slaves to keep the water supply running smoothly. Caravans of hundreds of camels each year rattle back and forth into sub-Saharan Africa.

Village and town construction similarly reaches a peak, and the extinct lakes of the Sahara, dry now for almost six millennia, are mined for their salt content. The Garamantes become famous salt traders. However, the subsequent rise in population will eventually put an ever-increasing strain on the limited water supply.

The Romans knew the Garamantes as the Fezzan, or south-west Libyan Desert Phasania, and it was they who left behind these underground wall paintings

96 - 30 BC

To the north, Cyrene becomes part of the Roman republic in 96 BC. It is restored to the Ptolemies in 37 BC by Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), and his daughter by Cleopatra VII of Egypt is made queen in Cyrene.

This arrangement lasts for just seven years before Egypt is permanently incorporated within the Roman republic and subsequent empire. Romans are now a fixed feature on the northern edge of Garamantes territory.

49 - 46 BC

The arrival of the Romans in the north has a definite impact on the Garamantes. According to the Roman poet, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (Lucan), the first conflict takes place when the Garamantes join the Numidian king, Juba I, during the war between Julius Caesar and the senate. Juba's army defeats the Roman commander, Curio, in 49 BC, but a retaliatory strike by Caesar in turn defeats the Garamantes.

The last independent Hellenic ruler of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra VIII is perhaps one of history's best-known figures, thanks to her involvement in Rome's affairs in the lead up to the formation of the empire, and her two great romantic match-ups, with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony

19 BC

Garamantes who had served in Juba's army of 49 BC may have been nomads, but Roman attention is now focussed on this civilisation. Pliny the Elder records in his work, Natural History, that General Lucius Cornelius Balbus marches against the Phazanians and Garamantes, probably causing a good deal of upheaval.

It seems to be about this time that the older capital at Zinchecra is abandoned and the royal residence is moved to Garama. Various skirmishes occur over subsequent years with minimal detail being recorded, but probably with them between Rome and Garamantes nomads.

AD 24

Writing at the end of the first century AD, the historian, Tacitus, mentions the Garamantes assisting the Numidian rebel, Tacfarinas, raiding Roman coastal settlements.

At around the same point in time, archaeology has shown a significant degree of interaction taking place from at least this century through until the seventh century AD. This interaction is thought primarily to be driven by a trans-Saharan trade in slaves which is largely organised and controlled by the Garamantes of the Libyan Sahara.

Archaeological remains discovered at the Garamantes capital city near modern Germa revealed an impressive building (lower left) with stone footings and columns, and a broad set of steps leading up to the entrance (External Link: Creative Commons Licence 2.0 Generic) (click or tap on image to view full sized)

c.400

The Garamantes appear to outgrow their ability to exploit the environment around them. They have extracted an estimated one hundred and ten billion litres of water through the foggara system of subterranean tunnels during the six centuries of their peak.

The water starts to run out around the fourth century AD, and to dig deeper and further in search of it requires more slaves than Garamantes military power can successfully deliver. From this moment on their civilisation is doomed to fade.

A relative decline in trading across the late Iron Age is thought to mirror the failure of Garamantes underground irrigation systems. The process of Garamantes decline may well be complete by the time of the first Islamic imperial incursions into the region in the mid-seventh century AD.

The same decline may also contribute to the recorded political instability in the northern Sahara and along the Roman frontiers during the same period, most notably heralded by the arrival of the Vandali.

The Roman city of Leptis Magna had been greatly expanded at the end of the second century AD by its favourite son, Emperor Septimus Severus, but was abandoned following the Islamic invasion of North Africa

429 - 439

The Vandali and Alani migrate from Iberia into Africa Proconsularis. Once there, they carve out a kingdom over the course of a decade, taking the cities of Carthage and Utica in 439.

The subsequent loss of Roman trade probably harms the Garamantes and possibly even sounds their final death knell as a civilisation. After this point they form only smaller, more scattered communities or return to a life of nomadism.

Some scholars contend that the use of the water mines continues to around AD 700, but by then the civilisation has long since passed its peak. It does get a mention in the period between 565-570 though, when the Eastern Roman province of North Africa is making attempts to proselytise Garamantes survivors.

The period between Greek, Egyptian, and Roman domination of Libya left behind a rich heritage of ruins and remains, including this gladiator mosaic now at the museum in Tripoli