Sunday, 14 June 2009

Jebel Akhdar (Libya)

View from Jebel Akhdar in Libya near Benghazi is Libya's wettest region. Annual rainfall averages at between 400 and 600 millimeters.

Al'Jabel Al'Akhdar (Arabic: الجبل الأخضر‎ meaning The Green Mountain) is a heavily forested, fertile upland area in eastern Libya. It is located in the modern municipality of Al Jabal al Akhdar. The region is one of the very few forested areas of Libya, one of the least forested countries on Earth.

Jebel Akhdar consists of a mountainous plateaue (rising in some places to an altitude of 500 m/1,600 ft) cut by several valleys. It lies north of Benghazi and south of Derna. It is the wettest part of Libya, receiving some 600 mm/24 inches of precipitation annually. This rainfall means that the area has large forests, and enjoys rich fruit, potato, and cereal agriculture, something of a rarity in the arid country.

The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene was located in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar.

The Libyan leader Omar Mukhtar used this heavily forested mountainous region to resist the Italian military occupation of Libya for more than twenty years, where he organized and devised strategies for the Libyan resistance against the Italian colonization.


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