As you may already know the desert is a hot, and dry land. They usually consist of plateaus and plains. The desert is very cold during the night unlike daytime when it is scorching hot. The Savanna is almost like a but it is a mix of a desert and a rain forest. People in the middle east who survived in the desert were usually nomads which means they don't live in one spot. Arab nomads were known as Bedouins. They traveled in caravans through the desert.They wore loose fitting close that protected them from the desert condition. Nomads travel around looking for places that have water  like oases for there animals to graze. In the Sahara desert in a town named Taghaza salt was produced and sold to different places in Africa. Trade also occurred in the Sahara. It was called the trans Saharan trade. People sold food, gold salt, and slaves. The trans Saharan trade lasted for 100 years.


An oases is a small area in the desert where there is trees, shade, water, and food. People in the desert became sedentary which means that they stayed in one spot instead of traveling around as a nomadic people. To get water they built wells and bartered (traded) for other supplies they needed such as food, salt,slaves, and gold which they used to buy the products. They also relied on palm trees to make shelters and for food. People lived good lives in oases. They were a good place to do trading because they provided shade.



A coastal Plain is the large coasts that stretch across a peninsula. A peninsula is a piece of land that is surrounded by water on 3 sides. To survive on a peninsula the people built wells for fresh water. They used the ocean for resources and things to trade.They also built dams to help irrigate water. It influenced trade by starting trade by sea. People traded slaves, food, salt, and gold for things they needed. Gold was used to by these products. One major coastal plain is the Sahel which borders the Sahara desert. 



Mountains are giant rock formations that can reach higher than 15 thousand feet. People who survived in mountain ranges would build terraces in the mountains to build homes, storage, and to watch there crops down bellow. People farmed in order to get food and sometimes hunted for food. They also relied on trade to get other resources that they might have needed such as food, salt,slaves, and gold. Trade could be hard in mountains because it was hard to get around in the mountains.




In forests gold was mined. It was mined in a town called Wangara. People also came to forests to trade. They used the silent barter system. The way it worked was the people would travel by boat, on the Niger river, to where they would be trading. They beat a drum symbolizing when the trade was to start. People would set up there stands. People would be selling items such as gold, salt, slaves and gold. The Wangarans brought gold to trade with and the traders brought items. The peopel with the gold would go to the stand and give the trader an agreeable amount of gold and would take whatever they needed. Once everyone was done they would beat the drums and leave.




Africa's Vegetation Zones


 Ways of Survival in Africa