The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadu, rose to prominence by controlling trans-Saharan trade routes that connected West African goldfields to North Africa and the Mediterranean. Camel caravans carried salt mined in the Sahara southward to exchange for gold produced in forest-edge regions near the Niger and Senegal Rivers, with Ghana's rulers taxing the trade at both ends. Arab geographers of the period described the kingdom's wealth and its systems for taxing and regulating commerce. This exchange network made West Africa a major source of gold for the medieval Mediterranean and Islamic worlds.
Relevance to Trade History
Control of the gold-salt exchange gave West African states enormous wealth and tied the region permanently into Mediterranean and Islamic trade networks.
Read the full story in our article Gold, Salt, and the Empire of Mali.
Source: UNESCO. See our Sources & Methodology page for how we select and verify references.