The Garamantes (; ; ) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in the southern region of Libya. They most likely descended from Berber tribes and pastoralists from the Sahara. The Garamantes settled in the Fezzan region by at least 1000 BCE, and by the late 7th century CE, the Garamantian civilization had ceased. The Garamantes emerged as a major regional power in the mid-2nd century CE and established a kingdom that spanned roughly in the Fezzan region of southern Libya. Their growth and expansion was based on a complex and extensive qanat irrigation system (Berber: foggaras), which supported a strong agricultural economy and large population. They subsequently developed the first urban society in a major desert that was not centered on a river system; their largest town, Garama, had a population of around four thousand, with an additional six thousand living in surrounding suburban areas. At its pinnacle, the Garamantian kingdom established and maintained a "standard of living far superior to that of any other ancient Saharan society." Until the mid-20th century, the Garamantes were believed to be a small and minor desert tribe. During the 1960s, archaeological excavations began to reveal that the Garamantes were "brilliant farmers, resourceful engineers, and enterprising merchants who produced a remarkable civilization." History The earliest known written record to document the Garamantes dates to the 5th century BCE. According to Herodotus, the Garamantes were "a very great nation" who herded cattle and farmed dates, and were also reported in an account to have been in pursuit of "Troglodyte Ethiopians" who lived in the desert, from four-horse chariots. Roman depictions describe the Garamantes as bearing ritual scars and tattoos. Tacitus wrote that they assisted the rebel Tacfarinas and raided Roman coastal settlements. According to Pliny the Elder, Romans eventually grew tired of Garamantian raiding and Lucius Cornelius Balbus captured fifteen of their settlements in 19 BCE. In 202 CE, Septimius Severus captured the capital city of Garama. The decline of the Garamantian culture may have been connected to worsening climatic conditions, or overuse of water resources. What is desert today was once fairly good agricultural land and was enhanced through the Garamantian irrigation system 1,500 years ago. As fossil water is a non-renewable resource, over the six centuries of the Garamantian kingdom, the ground water level fell. Society In the 1960s, archaeologists excavated part of the Garamantes' capital at modern Germa (situated around 150 km