An animal-powered transport mode in which a rider travels mounted on a camel, or goods are carried in packs loaded onto the animal, exploiting the camel's tolerance for heat, long distances and scarce water to cross arid terrain that would be difficult for a horse or ox to manage. Camel transport was the backbone of trans-Saharan and Silk Road caravan trade for centuries, moving people, salt, textiles and other goods across desert regions between settled trading centers, and it remains in everyday and ceremonial use today in parts of North Africa, the Middle East and Central and South Asia.
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearThe exact millennium is disputed among historians; the cited source places dromedary domestication in the 3rd millennium BC and Bactrian domestication around 2500 BC, so 2500 BC is recorded here as a representative point in a range the source itself calls unsettled. Core ConcernMoving riders or pack loads across arid terrain by exploiting the camel's tolerance for heat and scarce water. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Camel
WikipediaLead section, second paragraph
Camels are working animals especially suited to their desert habitat and are a vital means of transport for passengers and cargo.
History section, domestication dating paragraph
Dromedaries may have first been domesticated by humans in Somalia or South Arabia sometime during the 3rd millennium BC, the Bactrian in central Asia around 2,500 BC
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