The Romans called the Fezzan, or southwest Libyan desert Phasania. This identification of the area as Phazania by the Romans and Fezzan by the Arabs, suggest that this area may have originally been called Fazannby the Mande people who formerly inhabited this area.

A beautiful painted mural from this region was published in Odyssey (March 2000) that graphically illustrates the rich life style of the people thounsands of years ago.

If we examine this picture carefully we notice that the Libyco-Berbers or ancient mande people left an interesting inscription to describe the scene. I believe that this inscription dates

back to the period when the painting was made because they all have the same pigmentation.

There is also a design presented at this site which includes a series of boxes joined together which contain within the boxes a series of dots. This picture is interesting because we find similar designs on the Mande sites of the Niger Valley.

WE also find at the same site scenes depicting war.

There are also scenes depicting what I consider to be religious observance given the fact that there hands are rised above their heads.

All of these scenes make it clear that the Fezzan was a highly civilized part of the world and had a much better climate thousands of years ago.