The origins of modern humans can be traced back to Africa. It is not surprising, then, that Africa was once home to a number of great ancient civilizations. Some of these civilizations flourished millennia ago, while others flourished recently. These civilizations frequently constructed magnificent structures that were marvels of the ancient world. Many of these structures are still standing today.
The prosperity of Africa's ancient civilizations was heavily reliant on trade and the exchange of knowledge. All of the continent's ancient civilizations eventually perished, but not before leaving a lasting legacy on the people they once ruled. Here are some of Africa's most illustrious ancient civilizations.
The Kingdom of Kush
Though often overshadowed by its Egyptian neighbors to the north, the Kingdom of Kush has long been a regional power in Africa. This ancient Nubian empire ruled over a vast swath of territory along the Nile River in what is now Sudan during the second millennium B.C.
Almost everything we know about Kush comes from Egyptian sources, which indicate that it was a prosperous trading center for ivory, incense, iron, and, most notably, gold. The kingdom was both a trading partner and a military rival to Egypt, and it even ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty, adopting many of its neighbor's customs.
The Kushites worshipped some Egyptian gods, mummified their dead, and constructed their own pyramids. The area surrounding the ancient Kushite capital of Meroe now has more than 200 pyramid ruins than the rest of Egypt.
The Kingdom of Ghana
This African kingdom, more commonly known as Wagadu, was an important stop along the trans-Saharan trade route that connected African societies in the Sahel to markets along the Mediterranean Sea's coastlines and the trans-Saharan gold trade. Although its capital city was said to have changed several times, Kombi Saleh was the largest city south of the Sahara Desert at the time.
It was home to between 15,000 and 20,000 people at its peak, a phenomenal population for a city with a limited water supply. They were experts in the trade of gold and kola nuts. The decline of the Kingdom of Ghana was sealed when it became a part of the Kingdom of Mali around the year 1240 CE.
Carthage
Around the 8th or 9th century BCE, Carthage emerged as a city-state in what is now Tunisia. The city was built by Phoenician settlers who came from ancient Lebanon. Carthage eventually expanded into a vast sea-faring empire that ruled over much of coastal North Africa, the southern Iberian Peninsula, and all or part of the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily.
Carthage itself had a population of nearly 500,000 people at its peak. The Carthaginian Empire clashed with another ancient great power, the Roman Empire, in the mid-3rd century BCE, resulting in the Punic Wars. These wars came to an end in 146 BCE.