Ruins from the Garamantian kingdom in what is now the southwestern region of Libya. A unique method of obtaining underground water enabled the Garamantes to thrive in the Sahara more than 2,000 years ago, long after the region became a desert. "They were lucky to have this world-class aquifer," Frank Schwartz , a hydrogeologist at The Ohio State University, told Live Science. But the climate changed and the Sahara became"hyper-arid" by the time the Garamantian kingdom arose in about 400 B.C., he said. Instead, the Garamantian foggaras tapped an ancient subterranean aquifer that had formed in the nearby sandstone highlands tens of millions of years earlier and had been "topped up" during the Green Sahara phases.
