|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Desert (Wadi Al-Hayat) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In this valley there is a large collections of prehistoric and historic ruins dating back to more than ten centuries before the Christian era. The ancient inhabitants of the district were the Garamants.
Mr. Haynes, in his historical summary, narrates that the Roman proconsul Cornelius Balbus was faced with a war which started among the Mauretanian tribes and spread across the whole southern frontier of the province. Leaving the western tribesmen to his subordinate officers, Balbus led a military expedition against the Garamants in Fezzan. He set out from Oea or Sabratha. On his return to Rome gives a long list of captured places, including Garama, the capital of the Garamantes (the modern Germa in the Wadi el-Ajaal) , renamed ( Wadi al-Hayaat), and Cydamae (the modern Ghadames) which became an allied city of Rome at this time.*
Among the remains, left by the ancient Libyans, are the relics of towns, forts and waterr aqueducts. The aqueducts testify the effectiveness of their irrigation system which was one of the best known to the ancient peoples. Their rock drawings expressing their ways of life are greatly admired by historians and sightseers. The economic life of the ancient people of Wadi al-HAYAAT, centered on trade and commerce. They plied trade between the Mediterranean shores and Central African countries by means of chariots driven by horses. Their most notable remains are to be seen in Germa, their former capital which had reached according to historians the climax of its prosperity and progress during the time of Emperor Septimus Severus in I93-211 A.D. The antiquities of this town include many temples, houses built of stone and even villas with bath facilities of Pharaonic, Carthagian, Greek, and Roman models.
Thousands of stone-built tombs survive in the Wadi al-HIayat to bear witness to the care with which the tent-dwelling Garamantes housed their dead. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
