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It's the ancients on history hit.

I'm Tristan Hughes, your host and in today's episode where we're talking about that expansive

sea of sand, that is the Sahara Desert, and looking at how much of a barrier it really

was for communities that lived along the Mediterranean coastline thousands of years ago.

We're going to be talking about traders and travellers who ventured deeper into Africa,

varying from Egyptians to Carthaginians to Greeks and Romans.

We're going to be looking at stories of people circumnavigating the desert via ship,

and also we're going to explore the overland routes.

The people who lived in the Sahara Desert, such as the Garamantes, and how they helped

facilitate trade over this expansive sea of sand for communities both in Sub-Saharan

Africa and along the southern Mediterranean coastline.

Now to talk through all of this, I was delighted a couple of months ago to head up to Oxford

to interview the one and only Sir Barry Cummuth.

...