Ghana and the Saharan Caravans

With the spread of the camel, permanent caravan routes are laid across the Sahara, and at their southern end Ghana grows strong — a state between the Senegal and the Niger, unconnected with the modern country of that name. Its rulers take a toll on every load of gold and salt and keep a mounted army, and in the capital the quarters of the local nobility and of the Muslim merchants stand side by side. The Arab geographers describe Ghana as a land of gold, though the mines themselves are kept secret. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the power wanes and gives way to the new kingdoms of the Western Sudan.