Wikipedia
The Garamantes (possibly from the Berber igherman / iɣerman, meaning: "cities" in modern Berber; or possibly from igerramen meaning "saints, holy/sacred people" in modern Berber) were a people who developed an advanced civilization in ancient southwestern Libya. They used an elaborate underground irrigation system, and founded prosperous Berber kingdoms or city-states in the Fezzan area of Libya, in the Sahara desert. They were a local power between 500 BC and 700 AD.
There is little textual information about the Garamantes, but their written language was "...a still nearly indecipherable proto-Tifaniq, the script of modern-day Tuaregs." Even the name Garamantes was a Greek name, which the Romans later adopted. Available information comes mainly from Greek and Roman sources, as well as archaeological excavations in the area, though large areas in ruins remain unexcavated. Another important source of information is the abundant rock art, which often depicts life prior to the rise of the realm.
Usage examples of "garamantes".
In the armoury could be seen, between banners and the heads of wild beasts, weapons of all nations and of all ages, from the slings of the Amalekites and the javelins of the Garamantes, to the broad-swords of the Saracens and the coats of mail of the Normans.
The Garamantes roamed it on camels, herding their goats and sheep, living in tents to exclude not the rainthere was nonebut the sand.
Only among the Gaetuli and Garamantes, the inland Berber tribes, could Jugurtha now be sure of finding shelter and soldiers, be sure his armaments and his treasures were safe from the Romans.
Libyan peoples, and most of all by the Garamantes who lived to the west of them, south of the gulf of Tripoli, in what is now the Fezzan.
By this time, French scholars believe, Lybico-Berber peoples -- whether the old Garamantes or the Tuareg of the desert or other intermediaries and traders -had already taken it southward.
Roman legate, Cornelius Balbus, conquered not only the Garamantes of the Fezzan -- which is not in question -- but went on southward until it reached the Niger.
Marinus, whom Ptolemy corrects, in regard to the expedition to the Garamantes, who said it traversed 27,500 stadia beyond the equinoctial.
In the days when Rome ruled North Africa, Cornelius Balbus had struck south and conquered the Garamantes, to control the only corridor leading across the Sahara to the riches of Black Africa beyond.