From north Africa, the camel caravans carried bars of salt along with cloth, metal tools, tobacco across the 'Sahara' to trading centers such as Timbuktu and Djenne on the River Niger .
Few things for which the 'salt was traded' are ivory, gold, skins, sugar and pepper.
Trading of salt and gold through Sahara desert was going on for many centuries.
Gold from 'Mali' and other 'west African states' was traded 'north to the Mediterranean', in exchange for salt and luxury goods from desert.
