How Did an Ancient Civilization Build Cities in the Sahara?

Deep in the Sahara of ancient Libya, the Garamantes built oasis settlements, cultivated crops, traded across desert routes, and developed underground irrigation channels known as foggaras. How did they build a society in such a difficult environment, and why did their world change? CHAPTERS 00:00 The Civilization Beneath the Sand 00:40 Finding Fezzan 01:22 Farming Before the Water Tunnels 02:48 The Engineering of Foggaras 04:53 The Cities of the Oases 06:23 Trading Across the Sahara 07:04 The Story Written by Outsiders 07:48 When Rome Came South 09:18 The People Behind the Ruins 09:58 The Slow Transformation 11:21 Rediscovering the Garamantes 12:01 The Real Legacy RESEARCH STARTING POINTS University of Leicester, Trans-Sahara Research: https://le.ac.uk/news/2015/february/a... Archaeology of Fazzan: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2m7... Ancient Garama excavations: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2m7... Oxford on irrigation technologies: https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/publica... Further reading: Mattingly et al., The Archaeology of Fazzan (2003-2013); Wilson & Mattingly on foggara irrigation; van der Veen on Garamantian agriculture; Duckworth et al. on Garamantian glass. #history #garamantes #ancientafrica #libya #documentary