Africa (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III TRIPOLITANA General Survey: Extent, Divisions, Population Historic Retrospect: Exploration Physical Features: The Coastlauds of Tripolis The Inland Plateaux and Ranges: The Great Hammada Barka and Marmarica; The Aujila Depressions The Kufara Oases The Libyan Desert Ghat and Ghadames Fezzan Climate, Flora, and Fanna of Tripolitana Inhabitants Table of the Arabo-Berber Populations of Tripolitana The Turks, Jews, Negroes, and Europeans Towns: Tripolis, Benghazi Administration. General Survey: Extent, Divisions, Population The Turkish possessions in North Africa west of Egypt have remained untouched by the recent changes that have profoundly modified the political map of the Continent. They still comprise the whole region, extending along the Mediterranean seaboard from Tunisia nearly to the Siwah oasis, with an ill-defined " hinterland " reaching southwards to the Tropic of Cancer. In the absence of any conspicuous physical landmarks the western, southern, and eastern frontiers are mere conventional lines indicated on the maps by graceful but vague curves, which seem to present no greater stability than the shifting sands of the desert over which they are drawn. Between these curves and the Mediterranean are included the three somewhat distinct regions of textit{Tripolis in the Vol. I K west, textit{Barca in the east and textit{Fezzan in the south, which with the eastern oases of textit{Aujila and textit{Kufarah (Kufra) and textit{Ghat and textit{GJiadames in the west, may be conveniently comprised under the general designation of Tripolitana, though this expression was not extended by the Ancients farther east than the Syrtis Major (Gulf of Sidra). Hence as here used the term embraces both the Tripoli- tana and the Cyrenaica, as well as the Phaz...