The highest official temperature ever recorded was on 13 September 1922 at 'Aziziya, Libya, but that reading is queried. Less than 2% 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 is recorded.
For example, epic floods in 1945 left Tripoli underwater 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.
The large dune seas known as ergs of the Idehan Ubari and the Idehan Murzuq cover much of the land of Fezzan. 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.
The large dune seas known as ergs of the Idehan Ubari and the Idehan Murzuq cover much of the land of Fezzan. 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.
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 Kufra and at Sabha as part of a major agricultural development effort.
An even larger undertaking is the so-called Great Manmade River, initiated in 1984.
In 1987 these circumstances severely limited the country's agricultural potential as a basis for the sound and varied economy Gaddafi sought to establish.
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Page generated on 2021-08-05