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Kufra
Kufra () is a basinBertarelli (1929), p. 514. and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of nineteenth century Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. It is located in a particularly isolated area, not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by depressions which make it dominate the passage in east-west land traffic across the desert. For the colonial Italians, it was also important as a station on the north-south air route to Italian East Africa. These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of the southeastern Cyrenaica region of Libya, highlight the strategic importance of the oasis and why it was a point of conflict during World War II. Etymology The folk etymology associaters the word Kufra as coming from the Arabic word kafir, the Arabic term for non-Muslims (often transl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capture Of Kufra
The Capture of Kufra (, it, Cufra) was part of the Allied Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War. Kufra is a group of oases in the Kufra District of south-eastern Cyrenaica in the Libyan Desert. In 1940, it was part of the colony of Italian Libya , which was part of (ASI), which had been established in 1934. With some early assistance from the British Long Range Desert Group, Kufra was besieged from 31 January to 1 March 1941 by Free French forces which forced the surrender of the Italian and Libyan garrison. Background Kufra, in the Libyan Desert subregion of the Sahara, was an important trade and travel centre for the nomadic desert peoples of the region, including Berbers and Senussi. The Senussi made the oasis their capital at one point against British, Italian and French designs on the region. In 1931, the Kingdom of Italy captured Kufra and incorporated it into the Italian North Africa () colonisation of the Maghreb. The Italian post at Kufra included th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kufra District
Kufra or Kofra ( ar, الكفرة '), also spelled ''Cufra'' in Italian, is the largest district of Libya. Its capital is Al Jawf, one of the oases in Kufra basin. There is a very large oil refinery near the capital. In the late 15th century, Leo Africanus reported an oasis in the land of the ''Berdoa'', visited by a caravan coming from Awjila. It is possible that this oasis was identical with either the Al Jawf or the Taiserbo oasis, and on early modern maps, the Al Kufra region was often labelled as ''Berdoa'' based on this report. History The name ''Kufra'' (comes from Kufuh and Epher) itself is a derivation from ''kafir'', the Arabic term for non-Muslims. Kufra did not fall under the dominion of either the Arabs or the Ottomans and was owned by the Arab Bedouin tribe of the Zuwayya only in the mid 19th century, and eventually by the Italians by the 1930s. In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra, considered a strategic re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kufra Airport
Kufra Airport is an airport serving Al Jawf, capital of the Kufra District in southeastern Libya. The airport is just east of the city. History Kufra Airport began as Buma Airfield, built in the 1930s as a minor facility by the Italians. In early World War II, it provided an air link to Italian East Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland). It was captured by Free French units under General Leclerc on 1 March 1941 along with Kufra Oasis. In April 1942 a detachment of Squadron 16 of the South African Air Force with three Bristol Blenheim Mk. IV aircraft was ordered to Kufra under the command of Major J.L.V. de Wet to strengthen the garrison air defences. On the morning of 4 May 1942 the three aircraft took off on a familiarization mission. They became lost and landed about 150 kilometres North East of Kufra. A sandstorm thwarted ground and air search parties, and by the time the lost aircraft were located on 11 May only one of the total 12-man crew was alive. On 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Districts Of Libya
In Libya there are currently 106 districts, second level administrative subdivisions known in Arabic as ''baladiyat'' (singular ''baladiyah''). The number has varied since 2013 between 99 and 108. The first level administrative divisions in Libya are currently the governorates (''muhafazat''), which have yet to be formally deliniated, but which were originally tripartite as: Tripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest; and later divided into ten governorates. Prior to 2013 there were twenty-two first level administrative subdivisions known by the term ''shabiyah'' (Arabic singular ''šaʿbiyya'', plural ''šaʿbiyyāt'') which constituted the districts of Libya. In the 1990s the shabiyat had replaced an older baladiyat system. Historically the area of Libya was considered three provinces (or states), Tripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest. It was the conquest by Italy in the Italo-Turkish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. Libya is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 700,000 square miles (1.8 million km2), it is the fourth-largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest in the world. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over three million of Libya's seven million people. Libya has been inhabited by Berbers since the late Bronze Age as descendants from Iberomaurusian and Capsian cultures. In ancient times, the Phoenicians established city-states and tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El Tag
El Tag (; also ''Al-Tag'', ''Al-Taj'') is a village and holy site in the Kufra Oasis, within the Libyan Desert subregion of the Sahara. It is in the Kufra District in the southern Cyrenaica region of southeastern Libya. The Arabic ''el tag'' translates as "crown" in English, and derives from the position above the Kufra basin.Bertarelli (1929), p. 515. El Tag, being on a rise, is without an oasis spring and native date palm habitat. Senussi El-Tag was founded in 1895 by Muhammad El-Mahdi es-Senussi (1844–1902), after the Ottomans forced him and the Senussi Order from Jaghbub in the Cyrenaican desert to Kufra. He was the son of the founder and the supreme leader (1859-1902) of the Order. El-Mahdi founded a Zaouia (''madrassa''—school) with a mosque a low octagonal minaret tower here. He also built several tombs of the Senussi family here, which later included his own therefore making El-Tag a Senussi holy place. Italians and World War II During the colonial Italian Libya per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Jawf, Libya
Al Jawf ( ar, الجوف ') is a town in southeastern Libya, the capital of the Kufra district in Libya. The city has an elevation of 382.2 m (1,254 feet). In a 1984 census the city's population was 17,320. Al Jawf receives almost no rain whatsoever, averaging only 2.5mm (.1 inch) per year. Summer high temperatures average above 37.8 °C (100 °F). The city lies in the largest oasis in the Kufra basin,Bertarelli (1929), p. 514. extracting the water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System. It is one of the most heavily irrigated oases in the Sahara. The surrounding area contains clusters of center-pivot irrigation systems used for agriculture. The distinctive pattern was photographed from orbit by the crew of the International Space Station in 2016. Climate Al Jawf has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muhammad Al-Mahdi As-Senussi
Muhammad Al Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad es Senussi ( ar, محمد المهدي بن سيدي محمد السنوسي), also Sayyid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi Ali al-Sanusi, (1844–1902), was the supreme leader of the Sufi Senussi Order between 1859 and his death in 1902 in Libya.Vikør (1995), p. 152. Early years Muhammad Al-Mahdi was the son of the founder of the Senussi Order, Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. He was born in the town of Bayda in northern Cyrenaica, present day northeastern Libya,Vikør (1995), p. 51. He succeeded his father after his death as leader in 1859. Ottoman interference had forced the Senussi to leave coastal Bayda for the desert village of Jaghbub in 1856, where they built an Islamic university, mosque and palace. The later Senussi and Libyan leader King Idris was born here.Bertarelli (1929), p. 419. Kufra In 1895 following interference by the Ottomans Al-Mahdi moved again, much further south to the Kufra oasis in the Libyan Desert subr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vehicle Registration Plates Of Libya
Libya requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates. Current plates are European standard 520 mm × 110 mm. Current Series Libya's current series of license plates entered circulation in 2013, after Libyan Revolution and the overthrow of Gaddafi. Numbers on license plates are in Latin Alphabet, and all plates carry the Arabic text ليبيا meaning ''Libya'', in Naskh Script, either on the right hand side or the right top corner. Private Vehicles Private vehicle license plates are black on white and follow the format ''# - 1 to 999999 The First number (#), a 1 or 2 digit number consists of a code corresponding to Municipality in Libya. This number is separated by a dash from the registration code, which can be 1 to 6 digits. In the city of Tripoli, due to its larger population, 7-digit registration codes are also issued. Foreigner-owned Private Vehicles Foreigner-owned Private vehicle license plates are black on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senussi
The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi ( ar, السنوسية ''as-Sanūssiyya'') are a Muslim political-religious tariqa ( Sufi order) and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi ( ar, السنوسي الكبير ''as-Sanūssiyy al-Kabīr''), the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Senussi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity. The movement promoted strict adherence to Qur'an and Sunna, without partisanship to the traditional legal schools of thought. It also sought a reformation of Sufism, condemning various practices such as seeking help from the dead, sacrificing for them and other rituals which they considered to be superstitions and innovations. From 1902 to 1913, the Senussi fought French colonial expansion in the Sahara and the Kingdom of Italy's colonisation of Libya beginning in 1911. In World War I, they fought the Sen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs
Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (14 April 1831 – 2 June 1896) was a German geographer, explorer, author and adventurer. Biography Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs was born at Vegesack, now part of Bremen. His father was a physician, and there was much pressure on Rohlfs to join the field of medicine. After the ordinary course at the gymnasium of Osnabrück, he entered the Bremen corps in 1848, and took part as a volunteer in the Schleswig-Holstein campaign, being made an officer after the battle of Idstedt (July 1850). Rohlfs then became a medical student, and studied at the universities of Heidelberg, Würzburg, and Göttingen. He wanted to travel, and joined the French Foreign Legion in a medical capacity, serving during the conquest of Kabylia. He attained the highest rank open to a foreigner, and was decorated for bravery as Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Having learned Arabic and the mode of life of the inhabitants, in 1861 he went to Morocco, and was for some time personal phy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentBattesti, Vincent (2005) Jardins au désert: Évolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens: Jérid tunisien. Paris: IRD éditions. . that sustains plant life and provides habitat for animals. Surface water may be present, or water may only be accessible from wells or underground channels created by humans. In geography, an oasis may be a current or past rest stop on a transportation route, or less-than-verdant location that nonetheless provides access to underground water through deep wells created and maintained by humans. The word ''oasis'' came into English from la, oasis, from grc, ὄασις, , which in turn is a direct borrowing fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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