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Location: Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea,
between Egypt and Tunisia
Geographic coordinates: 25 00 N, 17 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area:
total: 1,759,540 sq km
land: 1,759,540 sq km
water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly larger than Alaska
Land boundaries:
total: 4,383 km
border countries: Algeria 982 km, Chad 1,055 km, Egypt 1,150
km, Niger 354 km, Sudan 383 km, Tunisia 459 km
Coastline: 1,770 km
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
note: Gulf of Sidra closing line - 32 degrees 30 minutes
north
Climate: Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert
interior
Terrain: mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus,
depressions
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m
highest point: Bikku Bitti 2,267 m
Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, gypsum
Land use:
arable land: 1%
permanent crops: 0%
permanent pastures: 8%
forests and woodland: 0%
other: 91% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 4,700 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: hot, dry, dust-laden ghibli is a southern
wind lasting one to four days in spring and fall; dust storms, sandstorms
Environment - current issues: desertification; very limited
natural fresh water resources; the Great Manmade River Project,
the largest water development scheme in the world, is being built
to bring water from large aquifers under the Sahara to coastal cities
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Climate Change, Desertification, Marine Dumping,
Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: Biodiversity, Law of the Sea
Libya
GEOGRAPHY
Size: About 1,760,000 square kilometers (excluding Aouzou
Strip claimed by Chad) consisting mainly of desert. Land boundaries
4,345 kilometers long and coastline 1,770 kilometers long. Twelve-nautical-
mile maritime claim, including disputed Gulf of Sidra.
Topography: Main contrast between narrow enclaves of fertile
lowlands along Mediterranean coast and vast expanse of arid, rocky
plains and sand seas to south. Coastal lowlands separated from one
another by predesert zone and backed by plateaus with steep, north-facing
scarps; country's only true mountains, Tibesti, rise in southern
desert. Country has several saline lakes but no perennial watercourses.
Less than 5 percent of territory economically useful.
Climate: Dominant climate influences Mediterranean Sea and
Sahara Desert. In coastal lowlands, where 80 percent of population
lives, climate Mediterranean, with warm summers and mild winters.
Climate in desert interior characterized by very hot summers and
extreme diurnal temperature ranges. Precipitation ranges from light
to negligible; less than 2 percent of country receives enough rainfall
for settled agriculture.
Data as of 1987
Libya
GEOGRAPHY
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 . 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 . 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 .
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
Libya
Climate and Hydrology
Within Libya as many as five different climatic zones have been
recognized, but the dominant climatic influences are Mediterranean
and Saharan. In most of the coastal lowland, the climate is Mediterranean,
with warm summers and mild winters. Rainfall is scanty, and the
dry climate results in a year-round 98-percent visibility. The weather
is cooler in the highlands, and frosts occur at maximum elevations.
In the desert interior the climate has very hot summers and extreme
diurnal temperature ranges.
Less than 2 percent of the national territory receives enough rainfall
for settled agriculture, the heaviest precipitation occurring in
the Jabal al Akhdar zone of Cyrenaica, where annual rainfall of
400 to 600 millimeters is recorded. All other areas of the country
receive less than 400 millimeters, and in the Sahara 50 millimeters
or less occurs. Rainfall is often erratic, and a pronounced drought
may extend over two seasons. For example, epic floods in 1945 left
Tripoli under water for several days, but two years later an unprecedentedly
severe drought caused the loss of thousands of head of cattle.
Deficiency in rainfall is reflected in an absence of permanent
rivers or streams, and the approximately twenty perennial lakes
are brackish or salty. In 1987 these circumstances severely limited
the country's agricultural potential as a basis for the sound and
varied economy Qadhafi sought to establish. The allocation of limited
water is considered of sufficient importance to warrant the existence
of the Secretariat of Dams and Water Resources, and damaging a source
of water can be penalized by a heavy fine or imprisonment.
The government has constructed a network of dams in wadis, dry
watercourses that become torrents after heavy rains. These dams
are used both as water reservoirs and for flood and erosion control.
The wadis are heavily settled because soil in their bottoms is often
suitable for agriculture, and the high water table in their vicinity
makes them logical locations for digging wells. In many wadis, however,
the water table is declining at an alarming rate, particularly in
areas of intensive agriculture and near urban centers. The government
has expressed concern over this problem and because of it has diverted
water development projects, particularly around Tripoli, to localities
where the demand on underground water resources is less intense.
It has also undertaken extensive reforestation projects .
There are also numerous springs, those best suited for future development
occurring along the scarp faces of the Jabal Nafusah and the Jabal
al Akhdar. The most talked-about of the water resources, however,
are the great subterranean aquifers of the desert. The best known
of these lies beneath Al Kufrah Oasis in southeastern Cyrenaica,
but an aquifer with even greater reputed capacity is located near
the oasis community of Sabha in the southwestern desert. In the
late 1970s, wells were drilled at Al Kufrah and at Sabha as part
of a major agricultural development effort. An even larger undertaking
is the so-called Great Man-Made River, initiated in 1984. It is
intended to tap the tremendous aquifers of the Al Kufrah, Sarir,
and Sabha oases and to carry the resulting water to the Mediterranean
coast for use in irrigation and industrial projects.
Data as of 1987
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