Photo credit :By Luca Galuzzi (Lucag) licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 , via Wikimedia Commons
120 of modern times.
Regarding their skill as
farmers, it is noticeable
that the Garamantes,
against all odds, thrived
in such a harsh climate,
quite similar to the one
the Sahara is suffering
nowadays.
They did
it fundamentally due
to the establishment
of the oasis, improved
by an irrigation system through subterra-
nean channels, something unheard of for its
time. Known as foggaras (in Tamazigh),
these channels collected
subterranean
waters and directed
them to the orchards,
preventing the burning
sun from diminishing
their volume. We know
of the success of that
procedure because of
the present existence
14
of a network of more
than 1,000 kilometers
of foggaras, which in
ancient times allowed
the Garamantes to
grow grain and Date
Palm trees, among
other plants. But the
foggares are not, no
less, the only evidence which gives
faith to how advanced
the
Garamantes’
Civilization was.