The Port of Tobruk ( ar, ميناء طبرق) is a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

located at

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

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 ...

. Opened in 1986, it is located in Eastern Libya near the Egyptian border - about east of

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

. The entrance to the main channel into the port is between

Tobruk point Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

( ) and the point of Marsa Ummash Shawush.

History

Tobruk was formerly the historic settlement of

Antipyrgos Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

, offering a major harbor for the hellenic states. The port has never been systematically surveyed for archeological findings to evaluate the use of the port during this time. During the Italo-Turkish War in 1911, Tobruk was the landing point for 35,000 Italian soldiers under the command of . During World War II, the port, one of the most valuable deep water ports in North Africa, was fortified by 12,000 British and Indian troops and 14,000 Australian troops. Starting in April 1941 and ending in November 1941, German general

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

surrounded the port besieging the troops resulting in the

Siege of Tobruk The siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941, after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against Allied forces in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. ...

. During the 1960s, high viscocity oil from the

Sarir field Sarir or Serir was a medieval Christian state lasting from the 6th or 7th century to the 12th century in the mountainous regions of modern-day Dagestan. Its name is derived from the Arabic word for "throne" and refers to a golden throne that ...

was piped to Tobruk for loading on vessels, because the oil was not safe to load at sea. The port has been constructed by late 1966. The first oil cargo had been exported on . It had been run by British Petroleum till 1971, when the Libyan branch of the company had been nationalized. As a result of 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 ...

, the port was temporarily closed due to clashes between protestors and government forces and reopened on 28 February 2011 for oil exports. The port re-opened soon after the civil war ended. As of August 2014, all port traffic from the Port of Benghazi will be diverted to the port of Tobruk due to the closure of the port in Benghazi as a direct result of the sustained Post-civil war violence in Libya.

Operations

It requires a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

to enter the port. The port has ten anchorages, with a six-vessel capacity each. As of 2010, the port had three cargo handling cranes, one with a 50-80 ton capacity and two with 30-40 ton capacity.

References

External links

Tobruk Port
{{Libyan Oil-ports

Tobruk 1966 establishments in Libya

History

Operations

References

Further reading

External links