After the Sahara became a desert, it did not present a totally impenetrable barrier for travelers between north and south because of the application of animal husbandry towards carrying water, food, and supplies across the desert.

Extensive walled sites and settlements have recently been found in Zilum, Chad, southwest of Lake Chad, dating to the first millennium BCE.Prior to the introduction of the camel, the use of oxen, mule, and horses for desert crossing is common, and trade routes followed chains of oases that were strung across the desert.

Trans-Saharan commerce is in full motion by 500 BCE with Carthage being a major economic force for its establishment.

It is thought that the camel was first brought to Egypt after the Persian Empire conquered Egypt in 525 BCE, although large herds do not become common enough in North Africa for camels to be the pack animal of choice for the trans-Saharan trade.

Nubia in present-day Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt, is referred to as "Aethiopia" ("land of the burnt face") by the Greeks.Considered Sub-Saharan Africa's oldest urban civilization at her greatest phase, Nubia is a major source of gold for the ancient world.

Nubians build famous structures and numerous pyramids.

Sudan, the site of ancient Nubia, has more pyramids than anywhere in the world.The Axumite Empire, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period circa the fourth century BCE, it rises to prominence in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea by the first century CE.

Deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean, it spans the southern Sahara and the Sahel along the western shore of the Red Sea.

The Aksumites construct monolithic stelae to cover the graves of their kings, such as King Ezana's Stele.

In ancient Somalia, city-states flourish such as Opone, Mosyllon and Malao, competing with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo–Greco–Roman trade.The Nok culture is known from a type of terracotta figure found in Nigeria, dating to between 500 BCE and 200 CE.The Bantu expansion is a major migration movement originating in West Africa around 2500 BCE, reaching East and Central Africa by 1000 BCE and Southern Africa by the early centuries CE.The earliest Bantu inhabitants of the Southeast coast of Kenya and Tanzania encountered by later Arab and Persian settlers have been variously identified with the trading settlements of Rhapta, Azania and Menouthias referenced in early Greek and Chinese writings from 50 CE to 500 CE, ultimately giving rise to the name for Tanzania.

These early writings perhaps document the first wave of Bantu settlers to reach Southeast Africa during their migration.

Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who are iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, are already present south of the Limpopo River by the fourth or fifth century, displacing and absorbing the original Khoisan speakers.