Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Salt from the Sahara moved south while gold moved north across hundreds of miles. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a history fact?

Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Camel caravans linked West African gold to the Mediterranean

Salt from the Sahara moved south while gold moved north across hundreds of miles From about the eighth century, caravans crossed the Sahara between trading towns such as Sijilmasa and Timbuktu, carrying Saharan salt slabs south and West African gold north. A single journey could take two months, and camels made it feasible where pack oxen could not. Ibn Battuta joined one such caravan in 1352. It sits in Mondo's history collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Library of Congress

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Gold resists corrosion because it is chemically unreactiveHigh ionisation energy prevents gold atoms from bonding easily with oxygen The Sahara is the largest hot desert on EarthIt spans over nine million square kilometres across northern Africa Gold and platinum are synthesized during neutron star collisionsRapid neutron capture nuclear processes forge heavy cosmic metals The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the worldSpanning over nine million square kilometres, the Sahara covers much of North Africa.The Hanseatic League ran trade from Lübeck to LondonA loose alliance of merchant towns dominated northern European commerce for centuries Ibn Battuta travelled for twenty-nine yearsA Moroccan scholar covered far more ground than Marco Polo ever did

Tags: sahara, gold, caravans

Camel caravans linked West African gold to the Mediterranean: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Salt from the Sahara moved south while gold moved north across hundreds of miles. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a history fact?: Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.