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BENGHAZI

Images (Dec. 1999 - Jan. 2000)

Benghazi (also Banghazi), city of northeastern Libya and active port of the Mediterranean sea, chief town of the homonym district (Baladiya), situated on the northeastern extremity of the gulf of Sidra. Second city of Libya for dimensions, Benghazi has an international airport, is situated on the railway line of the country and it is to the center of an intense commerce of cereals, dates, olives, wool and livestock deriving from the surrounding region. Between the principal activities of the region, the agriculture and the fishing. The sponges, the skins and the wool constitute the principal voices of the export. The city is center of the first Libyan university (1956). 

Benghazi rises on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Hesperides. It was dominion of the Turks from the 16th century up to the conquest of Italians (1911), year beginning from which was attached to Italian Libya. During the second world it was occupied by the English troops, and it constituted a British administrative center up to the proclamation of the independence of Libya (1951).

Inhabitants: 800.000