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Tamanrasset Desert
Tamanrasset (; ar, تامنراست), also known as Tamanghasset or Tamenghest, is an oasis city and capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, in the Ahaggar Mountains. It is the chief city of the Algerian Tuareg. It is located an altitude of . As of the 2008 census, it has a population of 92,635, up from 72,741 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 2.5%. Tamanrasset was originally established as a military outpost to guard the trans-Saharan trade routes. Surrounded by the barren Sahara Desert, very high temperatures of over have been recorded here. Tamanrasset is located at an oasis where, despite the difficult climate, citrus fruits, apricots, dates, almonds, cereals, corn, and figs are grown. The Tuareg people were once the town's main inhabitants. Tamanrasset is a tourist attraction during the cooler months. Visitors are also drawn to the Museum of the Hoggar, which offers many exhibits depicting Tuareg life and culture. The city is served by Tamanrasset Airport ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be defined as a permanent and densely settled place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organisations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving efficiency of goods and service distribution. Historically, city-dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization, more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kano (city)
Kano (Ajami: كانو) is a city in northern Nigeria and the capital of Kano State. It is the second largest city in Nigeria after Lagos, with over four million citizens living within ; located in the Savanna, south of the Sahel, Kano is a major route of the trans-Saharan trade. The city has been a trade and human settlement for millennia. It is the traditional state of the Dabo dynasty who since the 19th century have ruled as emirs over the city-state. Kano Emirate Council is the current traditional institution inside the city boundaries of Kano, and under the authority of the Government of Kano State. The city is one of the medieval Hausa seven kingdoms and the principal inhabitants of the city are the Hausa people. Centuries before British colonization, Kano was strongly cosmopolitan with settled populations of Arab, Berber, Tuareg, Kanuri and Fula and remains so with the Hausa language spoken as a lingua-franca by over 70 million speakers in the region. Islam arrived i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Qaeda In Islamic Maghreb
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في بلاد المغرب الإسلامي, Tanẓīm al-Qā'idah fī Bilād al-Maghrib al-Islāmī), or AQIM, is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) that aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state. To that end, it is currently engaged in an insurgency campaign in the Maghreb and Sahel regions. The group originated as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). It has since declared its intention to attack European (including Spanish and French) and American targets. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. Membership is mostly drawn from the Algerian and local Saharan communities (such as the Tuaregs and Berabiche tribal clans of Mali), as well as Moroccans from city suburbs of the North African country. The group has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Air Algérie Flight 6289
Air Algérie Flight 6289 (AH6289) was an Algerian domestic passenger flight from Tamanrasset to the nation's capital of Algiers with a stopover in Ghardaïa, operated by Algerian national airliner Air Algérie. On 6 March 2003, the aircraft operating the flight, a Boeing 737-2T4, crashed near the Trans-Sahara Highway shortly after taking off from Tamanrasset's Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport, killing all but one of the 103 people on board. At the time of the accident, it was the deadliest aviation disaster in Algerian soil. The investigation concluded that a flight crew error caused the crash following an engine failure shortly after take-off. The captain of Flight 6289 had taken over the control from the First Officer without adequate identification of the actual emergency. As the flight crew could not comprehend the exact cause of the emergency, appropriate corrective actions were not taken. The speed drastically dropped and the aircraft crashed into the terrain. Backgr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Béryl Incident
The "Béryl incident" was a French nuclear test, conducted on May 1, 1962, during which nine soldiers of the 621st Groupe d'Armes Spéciales unit were heavily contaminated by radioactivity. The test took place at In Eker, Algeria, then a French department, and was designed as an underground shaft test. Due to improper sealing of the shaft, radioactive rock and dust were released into the atmosphere. The soldiers were exposed to as much as 600 mSv. As many as 100 additional personnel were exposed to lower levels of radiation, estimated at about 50 mSv, when the radioactive cloud produced by the blast passed over the command post, due to an unexpected change in wind direction. Among those exposed were several French government officials, including French Defense Minister Pierre Messmer and Gaston Palewski, Minister of Scientific Research. A number of people from a local village were also exposed to radiation. Location The site chosen for the test was In Eker (Algerian Sah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Weapons And France
France is one of the five "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but is not known to possess or develop any chemical or biological weapons. France was the fourth country to test an independently developed nuclear weapon, doing so in 1960 under the government of Charles de Gaulle. The French military is currently thought to retain a weapons stockpile of around 300 operational (deployed) nuclear warheads, making it the third-largest in the world, speaking in terms of warheads, not megatons. The weapons are part of the national ''Force de frappe'', developed in the late 1950s and 1960s to give France the ability to distance itself from NATO while having a means of nuclear deterrence under sovereign control. France did not sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which gave it the option to conduct further nuclear tests until it signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 and 1998 respectively. France denies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerboise Bleue
''Gerboise Bleue'' (; ) was the codename of the first French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near Reggane, French Algeria in the Sahara desert region of Tanezrouft, during the Algerian War. General Pierre Marie Gallois was instrumental in the endeavour, and earned the nickname of ''père de la bombe A'' ("father of the A-bomb"). Name ''Gerboise'' is the French word for jerboa, a desert rodent found in the Sahara. The color blue (''Bleue'') adjuncted is said to come from the first colour of the French Flag. Test Explosion On April 11, 1958, French Prime Minister Félix Gaillard ordered a nuclear test in the first quarter of 1960. President Charles de Gaulle reaffirmed the decision after the French Fourth Republic collapsed in the May 1958 crisis. On 13 February 1960 at 7:04:00 UTC, the plutonium filled bomb was de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November, was fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (french: Front de Libération Nationale – FLN) from 1954 to 1962, which led to Algeria winning its independence from France. An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare and war crimes. The conflict also became a civil war between the different communities and within the communities. The war took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France. Effectively started by members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) on 1 November 1954, during the ("Red All Saints' Day"), the conflict led to serious political crises in France, causing the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946–58), to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles De Foucauld
Charles Eugène de Foucauld de Pontbriand, Viscount of Foucauld (15 September 1858 – 1 December 1916) was a French soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg people in the Sahara in Algeria. He was assassinated in 1916. His inspiration and writings led to the founding of the Little Brothers of Jesus among other religious congregations. Orphaned at the age of six, de Foucauld was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Colonel Beaudet de Morlet. He joined the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Upon leaving the academy he opted to join the cavalry. He thus went to the Saumur Cavalry School, where he was known for his childish sense of humour, whilst living a life of debauchery enabled by an inheritance he received after his grandfather's death. He was assigned to the 4th Chasseurs d'Afrique Regiment. At the age of twenty-three, he decided to resign in order to explore Morocco by impersonating a Jew. The quality of his works ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François-Henry Laperrine
François-Henry Laperrine (born Marie Joseph François Henry Laperrine d'Hautpoul, September 29, 1860 - March 5, 1920) was a French general who served during World War I. Biography Laperrine entered the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in October 1878 and became a captain in the 2nd Dragoons in November 1891. Laperrine organized the Compagnie Méharistes Sahariennes in 1897. He was a friend of Charles de Foucauld who was killed in 1916 in Tamanrasset.Foucauld, Charles de, and Marie Joseph François Henri Laperrine. ''Lettres inédites au général Laperrine, pacificateur du Sahara''. Paris: La Colombe, 1954. The two were honored on a stamp of Algeria in 1950. Laperrine died after a plane crash (a Breguet) in the Sahara in 1920. His companions, Lieutenant Bernard and mechanic Marcel Vasselin survived and recorded Le Peerrine's last words, "People think they know the desert...People think I know it. Nobody really knows it. I have crossed the Sahara ten times and I wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Algeria
French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers and lasted until the end of the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. While the administration of Algeria changed significantly over the 132 years of French rule, the Mediterranean coastal region of Algeria, housing the vast majority of its population, was an integral part of France from 1848 until its independence. As one of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants known as ''colons'', and later as . However, the indigenous Muslim population remained the majority of the territory's population throughout its history. Many estimates indicates that the native Algerian population fell by one-third in the years between the French invasion a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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