Editing History of Niger (section)

===Introduction of the camel===
[[Herodotus]] wrote of the [[Garamantes]] hunting the Ethiopian Troglodytes with their chariots; this account was associated with depictions of horses drawing chariots in contemporary [[cave art]] in southern [[Morocco]] and the [[Fezzan]], giving origin to a theory that the Garamantes, or some other Saran people, had created chariot routes to provide Rome and Carthage with gold and ivory. However, it has been argued that no horse skeletons have been found dating from this early period in the region, and chariots would have been unlikely vehicles for trading purposes due to their small capacity.<ref name="Masonen">
Masonen, P: "[http://www.hf-fak.uib.no/institutter/smi/paj/Masonen.html Trans-Saharan Trade and the West African Discovery of the Mediterranean World.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061008085939/http://www.hf-fak.uib.no/institutter/smi/paj/Masonen.html |date=8 October 2006 }}"
</ref>

The earliest evidence for domesticated [[camel]]s in the region dates from the 3rd century.  Used by the [[Berber people]], they enabled more regular contact across the entire width of the Sahara, but regular trade routes did not develop until the beginnings of the [[Islamic]] conversion of West Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries.<ref name="Masonen" /> Two main trade routes developed.  The first ran through the western desert from modern Morocco to the [[Niger river|Niger Bend]], the second from modern [[Tunisia]] to the [[Lake Chad]] area.  These stretches were relatively short and had the essential network of occasional oases that established the routing as inexorably as pins in a map.  Further east of the Fezzan with its trade route through the valley of Kaouar to Lake Chad, Libya was impassable due to its lack of oases and fierce sandstorms.<ref>Lewicki, T. (1994). "The Role of the Sahara and Saharians in Relationships between North and South". In ''UNESCO General History of Africa: Volume 3.'' University of California Press, {{ISBN|92-3-601709-6}}.</ref> A route from the Niger Bend to [[Egypt]] was abandoned in the 10th century due to its dangers.