Peg Garrity, age 15, of Cleveland, Ohio, for her question:

WHERE WAS RANEM?

Ranem was one of the longest lasting empires in history. Located on the northeast side of Lake Chad in Africa, the empire started during the A.D. 700s and lasted until the late 1800s.

Trade made Kanem prosperous. Copper, horses, metalware and salt from North Africa, Europe and Asia were traded in Kanem's markets for ivory and kola nuts from the south. The empire's rulers maintained a powerful army that kept the trade routes safe and collected taxes from the traders.

The Sefuwa royal family ruled Kanem from the 800s to the 1800s. The rulers converted from tribal beliefs to Islam, the Moslem relgion, in 1086. At that time they also started to expand the empire.

At its height, Kanem included parts of what are now Cameroon, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria and the Sudan.

Kanem started to decline from 1617 because trade centers shifted from inland routes to the coast. European powers gained control of the empire in the late 1800s.