Rock art in the caves of Tassili n’Ajjer in southeastern Algeria date from at least 10,000 BC, pointing to Neolithic settlements and domesticated herds in a savannah landscape quite different from the present desert. The original inhabitants were probably semi-nomadic ancestors of the Kabyle people, a Berber ethnic group from Algeria’s Atlas Mountains. Phoenician merchants established trading settlements across the western Mediterranean from the 10th century BC. The port of Carthage (in modern Tunisia) became the most powerful city in the region, controlling numerous harbours, trade routes and settlements and rivalling the Roman Empire.