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A camel train, caravan, or camel string is a series of camels carrying passengers and goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. Despite rarely travelling faster than human walking speed, for centuries camels' ability to withstand harsh conditions made them ideal for communication and trade in the desert areas of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
At one time the caravan route from Timbuktu extended through Taoudenni to Taghaza, another salt-mining site, and on to the lands north of the Sahara on the Mediterranean Sea. Caravans with up to 10,000 camels carried gold and slaves north, returning with manufactured goods and salt from Taghaza and Taoudenni. [2]
Trade was conducted by caravans of camels. According to Maghrebi explorer Ibn Battuta, who once traveled with a caravan, an average one would amount to 1,000 camels, but some caravans were as large as 12,000. [3] [4] The caravans were guided by highly-paid Berbers, who knew the desert and could ensure protection from fellow desert nomads.
Sudanese telegraph stamp depicting camel caravan (1898) Map of Bir Natrun, a stop on the trade route that was known as a valuable source of rock salt (1925) [1]. Darb El Arba'īn (Arabic: درب الاربعين) (also called the Forty Days Road, for the number of days the journey was said to take in antiquity) is the easternmost of the great north–south Trans-Saharan trade routes.
For example, a caravan of 500 camels could only transport as much as a third or half of the goods carried by a regular Byzantine merchant sailing ship. [citation needed] Present-day caravans in less-developed areas of the world often still transport important goods through badly passable areas, such as seeds required for agriculture in
The Ancient Garamantian caravan trade route between the coast of Tripolitania across the Sahara to Lake Chad transported foremost circus animals, gold, cabochon and raw material for food processing and perfume manufacture, but also slaves; the African slave trade was however likely limited prior to the Islamic period, and African slaves ...
The camel caravans from Taoudenni are some of the last that still operate in the Sahara Desert. In the late 1960s, during the regime of Moussa Traoré , a prison was built at the site and the inmates were forced to work in the mines.
The camels of the numerous caravans have to go a great distance for forage. Wood is so scarce that nothing is burned but camel dung, which is carefully collected by the slaves. This is the only fuel used even for cooking. The Moors collect their camels every six days, in order to take them to drink at the wells, which are in the environs of the ...