Related Research Articles
A camel is an even-toed ungulate in the genus Camelus that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provide food and textiles. Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo. There are three surviving species of camel. The one-humped dromedary makes up 94% of the world's camel population, and the two-humped Bactrian camel makes up 6%. The Wild Bactrian camel is a separate species and is now critically endangered.
North Africa or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in the west, to Egypt's Suez Canal.
The history of Western Sahara can be traced back to the times of Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator in the 5th century BC. Though few historical records are left from that period, Western Sahara's modern history has its roots linked to some nomadic groups such as the Sanhaja group, and the introduction of Islam and the Arabic language at the end of the 8th century AD.
The Bedouin, Beduin or Bedu are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. However, the Arabian Peninsula is the historic and original homeland of the Bedouin Arabs. The English word bedouin comes from the Arabic badawī, which means "desert dweller", and is traditionally contrasted with ḥāḍir, the term for sedentary people. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the rocky sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans, and historically share a common culture of herding camels and goats. The vast majority of Bedouins adhere to Islam, although there are some fewer numbers of Christian Bedouins present in the Fertile Crescent.
The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Traditionally nomadic pastoralists, small groups of Tuareg are also found in northern Nigeria.
Exploration is the act of searching for the purpose of discovery of information or resources, especially in the context of geography or space, rather than research and development that is usually not centred on earth sciences or astronomy. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans. In human history, its most dramatic rise was during the Age of Discovery when European explorers sailed and charted much of the rest of the world for a variety of reasons. Since then, major explorations after the Age of Discovery have occurred for reasons mostly aimed at information discovery.
The Sahara is a desert on the African continent. With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
The Garamantes were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest known record of their existence dates to the fifth century BC. Little remains of their civilization, as their epigraphy is nearly indecipherable; much of what is known comes from contemporaneous Greek and Roman foreign accounts and modern archaeological findings.
Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century. The Sahara once had a very different environment. In Libya and Algeria, from at least 7000 BC, there was pastoralism, the herding of sheep, goats, large settlements, and pottery. Cattle were introduced to the Central Sahara (Ahaggar) from 4000 to 3500 BC. Remarkable rock paintings in places that are currently very dry, portray flora and fauna that are not present in the modern desert environment.
Desert exploration is the deliberate and scientific exploration of deserts, the arid regions of the earth. It is only incidentally concerned with the culture and livelihood of native desert dwellers. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding semi-arid lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, and oases have provided opportunities for a more settled way of life. Many, such as the Bushmen in the Kalahari, the Aborigines in Australia and various Indigenous peoples of the Americas, were originally hunter-gatherers. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, and traditionally were used by caravans of camels carrying salt, gold, ivory and other goods. Large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara. Today, some mineral extraction also takes place in deserts, and the uninterrupted sunlight gives potential for the capture of large quantities of solar energy.
Charles Foster is an English writer, traveller, veterinarian, taxidermist, barrister and philosopher. He is known for his books and articles on Natural History, travel, theology, law and medical ethics. He is a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford. He says of his own books: 'Ultimately they are all presumptuous and unsuccessful attempts to answer the questions 'who or what are we?', and 'what on earth are we doing here?'
"Greater Mauritania" is a term for the Mauritanian irredentist claim to Western Sahara, and possibly other Moorish or Sahrawi-populated areas of the western Sahara desert.
A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defense against bandits as well as helping to improve economies of scale in trade.
Michael Asher is an English desert explorer who has spent extensive time travelling and living in the Sahara and the Arabian desert, published both non-fiction and fictional works based on his explorations and encounters, and supported the production of several documentaries based on his published works.
The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco is a book by radio and television journalist Richard Hamilton. The book contains a foreword by the travel writer and publisher Barnaby Rogerson.
John Neville Hare OBE FRGS is a British explorer, author, and conservationist, known for campaigning for preservation of the Wild Bactrian camel.
Libyan Sands: Travel in a Dead World is a travel book, written by Ralph A. Bagnold, the founder of the British Army's Long Range Desert Group in the Second World War. Described by Sahara expert Eamonn Gearon as "without question, the classic work of 20th-century Saharan exploration", it is a first-hand account of Bagnold's pioneering adventures in the Saharan desert during his time in the British army. It is still considered a classic work, and in 2010, it was reissued by Eland.
Between the first century BC and the fourth century AD, several expeditions and explorations to Lake Chad and western Africa were conducted by groups of military and commercial units of Romans who moved across the Sahara and into the interior of Africa and its coast. The primary motivation for the expeditions was to secure sources of gold and spices.
References
- ↑ "The World according to..." Wanderlust Magazine. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
- ↑ "The Sahara: A Cultural History". Signal Books . Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ↑ "The Sahara: A Long Way from a Cultural Desert". Mikael Strandberg. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
- ↑ http://archive.arabnews.com/?page=21§ion=0&article=76566&d=22&m=1&y=2006/%5B%5D
- ↑ "University of Southampton: Books by Alumni". Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
- ↑ "Arab Invasions: The First Islamic Empire". History Today. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
- ↑ "Middle East Magazine". Exact Editions.
- ↑ Eamonn Gearon at IMDb
- ↑ "A Mother's Love".
- ↑ "From the Niger to the Nile: One Hundred Years of Saharan Exploration". ASTENE Ninth Biennial Conference, Oxford July 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2020.[ permanent dead link ]
- ↑ "The Sahara: A Cultural History". LSE Middle East Center. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ↑ "Cunard Insights" (PDF). Cunard.
- ↑ Gearon, Eamonn (2011). The Sahara: A Cultural History. UK: Signal Books. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-904955-82-5.
- ↑ "Meetings With Remarkable Muslims: A Collection". Eland & Sickle Moon Books. Retrieved 15 March 2006.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Routledge. 2004. p. 1912. ISBN 978-1-57958-245-6.
- ↑ Scott, Chris (2005) [2004]. Sahara Overland (2nd ed.). UK: Trailblazer Publications. p. 688. ISBN 978-1-873756-76-8.