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Libya, the fourth
largest state in Africa, is located in
North Africa and lies between latitudes
33°N and 20°N and longitudes 8°E and
25°E. Libya possesses a Mediterranean
coastline of approximately 1820 Km in
length and is bordered by Egypt to the
east, Sudan to the south-east, Chad and
Niger to the south with Algeria and
Tunisia to the west and north-west
respectively. Libya covers an area of
approximately 1,775,500 sq. km, 3 times
the surface area of France, and has a
population of about 4,500,000 (1995).
The capital city of Libya is Tarabulus
(Tripoli).
Libya is a cultural and
geographic bridge firstly between Egypt
and the Arabian lands to the East, the
Mashreq and the territory of the Arab
West, the Maghreb. Secondly, Libya acts
as a link between the
Mediterranean / Europe and Saharan Africa.
The Arabic spoken in Libya is generally
different from the French-influenced
Arabic of the Maghreb with its quite separate accent and dialect from the
Arabic of the Nile valley.
Climate
Due to the lack of
natural barriers, the climate is greatly
influenced by the desert to the south
and the Mediterranean Sea to the north.
The coastal regions have a Mediterranean
climate with moderate temperatures and
enough rain during the winter months for
grain farming. In Tripoli average
temperatures are 30 deg C (86 deg F) in
summer and 8 deg C (46 deg F) in winter;
annual precipitation averages 380 mm (15
in) and falls mainly in winter. The
mountains of the Jabal Al-Akhdar attract
considerably more reliable rainfall in
winter and early spring, while in summer
the heights are cooler than the
surrounding plains. Semiarid conditions
predominate in the Al-Marj and Jaffara
plains, and in the southern deserts
frequent periods of drought occur. A
scorching wind called the "Ghibli" which
is a hot, very dry, sand laden wind
which can raise the temperatures in a
matter of hours to between 40 deg C and
50 deg C, occasionally blows into the
usually humid coastal towns. The wind is
most noticeable in western Libya and is
often associated with the spring
solstice |
