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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Libya
Index
With an area of 1,760,000 square kilometers and a Mediterranean
coastline of nearly 1,800 kilometers, Libya is fourth in size among
the countries of Africa and fifteenth among the countries of the
world. Although the oil discoveries of the 1960s have brought it
immense petroleum wealth, at the time of its independence it was an
extremely poor desert state whose only important physical asset
appeared to be its strategic location at the midpoint of Africa's
northern rim. It lay within easy reach of the major European
nations and linked the Arab countries of North Africa with those of
the Middle East, facts that throughout history had made its urban
centers bustling crossroads rather than isolated backwaters without
external social influences. Consequently, an immense social gap
developed between the cities, cosmopolitan and peopled largely by
foreigners, and the desert hinterland, where tribal chieftains
ruled in isolation and where social change was minimal.
The Mediterranean coast and the Sahara Desert are the country's
most prominent natural features
(see
fig. 4). There are several
highlands but no true mountain ranges except in the largely empty
southern desert near the Chadian border, where the Tibesti Massif
rises to over 2,200 meters. A relatively narrow coastal strip and
highland steppes immediately south of it are the most productive
agricultural regions. Still farther south a pastoral zone of sparse
grassland gives way to the vast Sahara Desert, a barren wasteland
of rocky plateaus and sand. It supports minimal human habitation,
and agriculture is possible only in a few scattered oases.
Between the productive lowland agricultural zones lies the Gulf
of Sidra, where along the coast a stretch of 500 kilometers of
wasteland desert extends northward to the sea. This barren zone,
known as the Sirtica, has great historical significance. To its
west, the area known as Tripolitania has characteristics and a
history similar to those of nearby Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
It is considered with these states to constitute a supranational
region called the
Maghrib (see Glossary).
To the east, the area
known historically as Cyrenaica has been closely associated with
the Arab states of the Middle East. In this sense, the Sirtica
marks the dividing point between the Maghrib and the
Mashriq (see Glossary).
Along the shore of Tripolitania for more than 300 kilometers,
coastal oases alternate with sandy areas and lagoons. Inland from
these lies the Jifarah Plain, a triangular area of some 15,000
square kilometers. About 120 kilometers inland the plain terminates
in an escarpment that rises to form the Jabal (mountain) Nafusah,
a plateau with elevations of up to 1,000 meters.
In Cyrenaica there are fewer coastal oases, and the Marj
Plain--the lowland area corresponding to the Jifarah Plain of
Tripolitania--covers a much smaller area. The lowlands form a
crescent about 210 kilometers long between Benghazi and Darnah and
extend inland a maximum of 50 kilometers. Elsewhere along the
Cyrenaican coast, the precipice of an arid plateau reaches to the
sea. Behind the Marj Plain, the terrain rises abruptly to form
Jabal al Akhdar (Green Mountain), so called because of its leafy
cover of pine, juniper, cypress, and wild olive. It is a limestone
plateau with maximum altitudes of about 900 meters. From Jabal al
Akhdar, Cyrenaica extends southward across a barren grazing belt
that gives way to the Sahara Desert, which extends still farther
southwest across the Chad frontier. Unlike Cyrenaica, Tripolitania
does not extend southward into the desert. The southwestern desert,
known as Fezzan, was administered separately during both the
Italian regime and the federal period of the Libyan monarchy. In
1969 the revolutionary government officially changed the regional
designation of Tripolitania to Western Libya, of Cyrenaica to
Eastern Libya, and of Fezzan to Southern Libya; however, the old
names were intimately associated with the history of the area, and
during the 1970s they continued to be used frequently. Cyrenaica
comprises 51 percent, Fezzan 33 percent, and Tripolitania 16
percent of the country's area.
Before Libya achieved independence, its name was seldom used
other than as a somewhat imprecise geographical expression. The
people preferred to be referred to as natives of one of the three
constituent regions. The separateness of the regions is much more
than simply geographical and political, for they have evolved
largely as different socioeconomic entities--each with a culture,
social structure, and values different from the others. Cyrenaica
became Arabized at a somewhat earlier date than Tripolitania, and
beduin tribes dominated it. The residual strain of the indigenous
Berber inhabitants, however, still remains in Tripolitania. Fezzan
has remained a kind of North African outback, its oases peopled
largely by minority ethnic groups.
The border between Tripolitania and Tunisia is subject to
countless crossings by legal and illegal migrants. No natural
frontier marks the border, and the ethnic composition, language,
value systems, and traditions of the two peoples are nearly
identical. The Cyrenaica region is contiguous with Egypt, and here,
too, the border is not naturally defined; illegal as well as legal
crossings are frequent. In contrast, Fezzan's borders with Algeria,
Niger, and Chad are seldom crossed because of the almost total
emptiness of the desert countryside.
Other factors, too, such as the traditional forms of land
tenure, have varied in the different regions. In the 1980s their
degrees of separateness was still sufficiently pronounced to
represent a significant obstacle to efforts toward achieving a
fully unified Libya.
Data as of 1987
Figure 4. Physical Features
Regions
With an area of 1,760,000 square kilometers and a Mediterranean
coastline of nearly 1,800 kilometers, Libya is fourth in size among
the countries of Africa and fifteenth among the countries of the
world. Although the oil discoveries of the 1960s have brought it
immense petroleum wealth, at the time of its independence it was an
extremely poor desert state whose only important physical asset
appeared to be its strategic location at the midpoint of Africa's
northern rim. It lay within easy reach of the major European
nations and linked the Arab countries of North Africa with those of
the Middle East, facts that throughout history had made its urban
centers bustling crossroads rather than isolated backwaters without
external social influences. Consequently, an immense social gap
developed between the cities, cosmopolitan and peopled largely by
foreigners, and the desert hinterland, where tribal chieftains
ruled in isolation and where social change was minimal.
The Mediterranean coast and the Sahara Desert are the country's
most prominent natural features
(see
fig. 4). There are several
highlands but no true mountain ranges except in the largely empty
southern desert near the Chadian border, where the Tibesti Massif
rises to over 2,200 meters. A relatively narrow coastal strip and
highland steppes immediately south of it are the most productive
agricultural regions. Still farther south a pastoral zone of sparse
grassland gives way to the vast Sahara Desert, a barren wasteland
of rocky plateaus and sand. It supports minimal human habitation,
and agriculture is possible only in a few scattered oases.
Between the productive lowland agricultural zones lies the Gulf
of Sidra, where along the coast a stretch of 500 kilometers of
wasteland desert extends northward to the sea. This barren zone,
known as the Sirtica, has great historical significance. To its
west, the area known as Tripolitania has characteristics and a
history similar to those of nearby Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
It is considered with these states to constitute a supranational
region called the
Maghrib (see Glossary).
To the east, the area
known historically as Cyrenaica has been closely associated with
the Arab states of the Middle East. In this sense, the Sirtica
marks the dividing point between the Maghrib and the
Mashriq (see Glossary).
Along the shore of Tripolitania for more than 300 kilometers,
coastal oases alternate with sandy areas and lagoons. Inland from
these lies the Jifarah Plain, a triangular area of some 15,000
square kilometers. About 120 kilometers inland the plain terminates
in an escarpment that rises to form the Jabal (mountain) Nafusah,
a plateau with elevations of up to 1,000 meters.
In Cyrenaica there are fewer coastal oases, and the Marj
Plain--the lowland area corresponding to the Jifarah Plain of
Tripolitania--covers a much smaller area. The lowlands form a
crescent about 210 kilometers long between Benghazi and Darnah and
extend inland a maximum of 50 kilometers. Elsewhere along the
Cyrenaican coast, the precipice of an arid plateau reaches to the
sea. Behind the Marj Plain, the terrain rises abruptly to form
Jabal al Akhdar (Green Mountain), so called because of its leafy
cover of pine, juniper, cypress, and wild olive. It is a limestone
plateau with maximum altitudes of about 900 meters. From Jabal al
Akhdar, Cyrenaica extends southward across a barren grazing belt
that gives way to the Sahara Desert, which extends still farther
southwest across the Chad frontier. Unlike Cyrenaica, Tripolitania
does not extend southward into the desert. The southwestern desert,
known as Fezzan, was administered separately during both the
Italian regime and the federal period of the Libyan monarchy. In
1969 the revolutionary government officially changed the regional
designation of Tripolitania to Western Libya, of Cyrenaica to
Eastern Libya, and of Fezzan to Southern Libya; however, the old
names were intimately associated with the history of the area, and
during the 1970s they continued to be used frequently. Cyrenaica
comprises 51 percent, Fezzan 33 percent, and Tripolitania 16
percent of the country's area.
Before Libya achieved independence, its name was seldom used
other than as a somewhat imprecise geographical expression. The
people preferred to be referred to as natives of one of the three
constituent regions. The separateness of the regions is much more
than simply geographical and political, for they have evolved
largely as different socioeconomic entities--each with a culture,
social structure, and values different from the others. Cyrenaica
became Arabized at a somewhat earlier date than Tripolitania, and
beduin tribes dominated it. The residual strain of the indigenous
Berber inhabitants, however, still remains in Tripolitania. Fezzan
has remained a kind of North African outback, its oases peopled
largely by minority ethnic groups.
The border between Tripolitania and Tunisia is subject to
countless crossings by legal and illegal migrants. No natural
frontier marks the border, and the ethnic composition, language,
value systems, and traditions of the two peoples are nearly
identical. The Cyrenaica region is contiguous with Egypt, and here,
too, the border is not naturally defined; illegal as well as legal
crossings are frequent. In contrast, Fezzan's borders with Algeria,
Niger, and Chad are seldom crossed because of the almost total
emptiness of the desert countryside.
Other factors, too, such as the traditional forms of land
tenure, have varied in the different regions. In the 1980s their
degrees of separateness was still sufficiently pronounced to
represent a significant obstacle to efforts toward achieving a
fully unified Libya.
Data as of 1987
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