the largest desert in the world, covering most of northern Africa

Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages.

A civilization to the south of Egypt in the Nile Valley, noted for development of an alphabetic writing system and a major iron working industry by 500 BCE

Nubian kingdom

Capital of a flourishing kingdom in southern Nubia from the fourth century B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E.. In this period Nubian culture shows more independence from Egypt and the influence of Sub-Saharan Africa.

He brought Christianity to Africa and made it the official religion of Axum.

City located in present-day Tunisia, founded by Phoenicians ca. 800 B.C.E. It became a major commercial center and naval power in the western Mediterranean until defeated by the expanding Roman Republic in the third century B.C.E.

located on eastern Mediterranean coast; invented the alphabet which used sounds rather than symbols like cuneiform

A series of three wars between Rome and Carthage (264-146 B.C.); resulted in the destruction of Carthage and Rome's dominance over the western Mediterranean.

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

A geographical area of fertile land in the Middle East stretching in a broad semicircle from the Nile to the Tigris and Euphrates

native

An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

a large waterfall

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

area in Africa where parts of the plateau's surface dropped and early human fossils are found

barrier to settlement due to the transmission of sleeping sickness

a potentially fatal disease caused by parasites carried by tsetse fly

to use

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.