Bilma

Bilma is an oasis beneath the Kaouar cliffs, amid the sands of the central Sahara. Date palms and gardens grow where water reaches the surface, while evaporation pans yield the salt and natron for which the oasis is renowned. Bilma belongs to a chain of settlements that offered caravans a passage between the Lake Chad basin and the Fezzan.

Kanem and later Bornu sought control of the Kawar oases and their valuable mineral production. In the late sixteenth century Mai Idris Aloma campaigned against Bilma and other oasis towns, bringing their rulers into Bornu's sphere. In the eighteenth century Tuareg forces gained control of Kawar. Salt caravans carried Bilma's produce westward across the Ténéré to Aïr, and onward toward the Hausa markets, in exchange for grain and other supplies.