Trans-Saharan trade · about 300-1600

Gold for salt: crossing the Sahara

Camel caravans crossed the largest hot desert on Earth to trade West African gold for Saharan salt. Students follow the caravans, meet the people who guided them and see how goods, faith and writing travelled together.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1300 to AD 1352
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Camel caravans crossed the largest hot desert on Earth to trade West African gold for Saharan salt. Students follow the caravans, meet the people who guided them and see how goods, faith and writing travelled together.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Trace the main caravan route from Sijilmasa through Taghaza to the Niger bend.
  • Explain why gold went north and salt went south, and list other goods traded each way.
  • Describe how the trade helped spread Islam and Arabic writing south of the Sahara.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1300

Across the sand

Open the map in 1300 and turn on Trade Routes. Find the Trans-Saharan Route. Where does it start and where does it end? About how many kilometers is it?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1300

Where desert meets river

Turn on Cities and find Timbuktu at the bend of the Niger. Why is a place where the desert meets a river a good spot for a market?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1352

Ibn Battuta crosses

Open Stories and choose Ibn Battuta under Travel with. Skip to his last journey in 1352. Which region does he cross to reach the Mali Empire?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did West Africa, rich in gold, need salt from the desert?
  2. Caravans could include hundreds or even thousands of camels. What could go wrong on a two-month desert crossing?
  3. Merchants carried ideas as well as goods. How did trade help Islam and Arabic writing spread south of the Sahara?
  4. Who do you think earned the most from this trade: miners, merchants, guides or kings? Explain.
  5. Enslaved people were also forced across the Sahara. How should we remember this part of the trade?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Mansa Musa, whose empire controlled the southern end of the Saharan routes. Discuss: how could a ruler grow rich from trade that he did not carry himself?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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