• Africa 2500 BC

Northern Africa has continued to get dryer, and the Sahara desert has reached roughly its present size. Farming communities now fringe its northern flank, and in the the valley of the river Nile, the world civilization of Ancient Egypt has emerged. To its south farming has also spread to Nubia, reaching the southern limit for agriculture based on wheat and barley.

To the south of the Sahara, the cattle-herding populations who lived in the region are now ranged over a broad swathe of territory stretching between Sudan and West Africa. In the rest of the continent, hunter-gatherer peoples, mostly related to today’s Pygmies or San Bushmen, roam the countryside.

Related Timelines:
Timeline of World History

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