Middle Ages Almanac | Africa

• Ethiopia
• Words to Know: Africa
• The Sudan
• Prester John
• The Glory of Timbuktu
• Bantu kingdoms and cities
• The Zanj
• For More Information

The African continent is divided by one of the most impenetrable natural boundaries in the world: the Sahara Desert. Covering an area larger than the continental United States, this greatest of all deserts ensured that northern Africa—Egypt and the Mediterranean coast—would develop along dramatically different lines than the southern part. Aside from Egypt itself, the two principal African civilizations of ancient times formed on the Red Sea coast, below Egypt and east of the Sahara. Southward lay...