Nalut (sometimes Lalút) ( ar, نالوت) is the capital of the
Nalut District
Nalut ( ar, نالوت ''Nālūt'', ber, Nalut ''Lalūt'') is one of the districts of Libya. Its capital is the city of Nalut. The second most notable city is Ghadames. To the north and west, Nalut district borders Tunisia (Medenine and Tataouin ...
in
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 Egypt–Libya bo ...
. Nalut lies approximately halfway between
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
and
Ghadames
Ghadames or Ghadamis ( Berber: ''ʕadémis''; ar, غدامس, Libyan vernacular: ''ɣdāməs'', Latin: ''Cidamus, Cydamus'', it, Gadames) is an oasis Berber town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya.
The i ...
, at the western end of the
Nafusa Mountains
The Nafusa Mountains ( Berber: ''Adrar n Infusen'' (Nafusa Mountain), ar, جبل نفوسة (Western mountain)) are a mountain range in the western Tripolitania region of northwestern Libya. It also includes their regions around the escarpment f ...
coastal range, in the
Tripolitania
Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...
region.
The town is a long-time
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
community and a cultural centre for them,
[ with a festival held in the spring to revive and promote the local culture, traditions, industries and art of the ]Amazigh
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
people.
History
Name
The name Nalut and its alternate Lalut may derive from the pagan Berber goddess of springs, Tala. As Nalut is only 60 km from the Tunisian border and lies close to some oases
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.”
The location of oases has been of critical imp ...
it played an important part in the caravan trade.[
]
Architecture
Nalut is home to the Qasr Nalut
Qasr ( ar, قصر, lit=palace/castle/fortress, plural ''qusur''), from Latin ''castrum'', may refer to:
Individual ''qusur'' and places named after a ''qasr''
*
*
Particular types of ''qusur''
* Alcázar (cognate Spanish term; also ''Alcácer'' ...
ⵣⴰⵙⵔⵓ ⵏ ⵏⴰⵍⵓⵜ, which is a granary fortified by a ksour (castle). The facility has been abandoned but is a tourist destination. The fortress was a communal building where the local families could store their grain in times of conflict.
The Alal'a Mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
– which is Nalut's oldest mosque – was rebuilt in 1312 CE.
Libyan civil war
A monument to Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
's ''Green Book'' in the town square was demolished during the Libyan Civil War
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
.[
In late April 2011, "Radio Free Nalut" began broadcasting in the city. It was one of several rebel-controlled radio stations established during the civil war and conducted broadcasts in ]Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
.
A national reconciliation conference for the factions in the Libyan Civil War was held in Nalut in September 2016.
Museum
Nalut contains the Nalut Dinosaur Museum, which exhibits fossil trees, crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
s and dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s which have been discovered in the vicinity of the town since the first find in 1998.[
]
See also
* List of cities in Libya
This is a list of the 100 largest populated places in Libya. Some places in the list could be considered suburbs or neighborhoods of some large cities in the list, so this list is not definitive.
''Source:Amraja M. el Khajkhaj, "Noumou ...
* 2011 Nafusa Mountains Campaign
The Nafusa Mountains campaign was a series of battles in the Libyan Civil War, fought between loyalist pro-Gaddafi forces and rebel anti-Gaddafi forces in the Nafusa Mountains and, at a later period, in the surrounding plains of western Libya. ...
* Nalut Dinosaur Museum
Notes and references
External links
{{District capitals of Libya
Populated places in Nalut District
Tripolitania
Baladiyat of Libya