Kufra ( / ˈ k uː f r ə / ) is a basin and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya . At the end of the 19th century, Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II .
134-482: It is located in a particularly isolated area, not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by depressions which make it dominate the passage of the east-west land traffic across the desert. For the colonial Italians, it was also important as a station on the north-south air route to Italian East Africa . These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of
268-547: A friendly fire incident on 28 June 1940, Graziani took his place as Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa . The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had given Graziani a deadline of 8 August 1940 to invade Egypt with the 10th Army . Graziani doubted the ability of his largely-unmechanized force to defeat the British and put off the invasion for as long as he could. However, faced with demotion, Graziani ultimately followed orders, and four divisions of
402-525: A bed of flowers. The three are assumed to have died within 24 hours of each other, but as their skeletons hold no apparent trauma (they did not die violently) and they have been buried so elaborately – unlikely if they had died of a plague – the cause of their deaths is a mystery. Rodolfo Graziani Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli ( US : / ˌ ɡ r ɑː t s i ˈ ɑː n i / GRAHT -see- AH -nee , Italian: [roˈdɔlfo ɡratˈtsjaːni] ; 11 August 1882 – 11 January 1955),
536-474: A bloody and indiscriminate reprisal upon the conquered country, later remembered by Ethiopians as Yekatit 12 . Up to thirty thousand civilians of Addis Ababa were killed indiscriminately; another 1,469 were summarily executed by the end of the next month, and over one thousand Ethiopian notables were imprisoned and then exiled from Ethiopia. Graziani became known as "the Butcher of Ethiopia". In connection with
670-652: A ceremony in Addis Ababa , Graziani ordered a period of brutal retribution now known as Yekatit 12 . Shortly after the Italy entered World War II , he returned to Libya as the commander of troops in Italian North Africa but resigned after the 1940–41 British offensive routed his forces; this campaign caused him other stress attacks, which he suffered from a snake accident during his military service in Libya
804-771: A combined force of Free French and Chadian native troops, attacked and took Kufra in the Battle of Kufra . In later stages of the Western Desert Campaign , Kufra was used as a staging post for Allied units such as the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service . In May 1942 it was a location of the Tragedy at Kufra , where three South African Air Force Bristol Blenheim aircraft became lost and after landing safely
938-426: A consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh ) of this vast region. The descending airflow
1072-459: A diameter of about 1 km and can be observed from space. This is one of Libya's largest agricultural projects. Because only about two percent of Libya's land receives enough rainfall to be cultivated, this project uses the underground aquifer . The green circles in the desert frequently indicate tracts of agriculture supported by center-pivot irrigation . The agricultural project is an easy-to-recognize landmark for orbiting astronauts aboard
1206-806: A few years before World War I . Following the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy in 1943, he was the only Marshal of Italy who remained loyal to Benito Mussolini and was named the Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic , commanding its army and returning to active service against the Allies for the rest of the war. Graziani was never prosecuted by the United Nations War Crimes Commission ; he
1340-519: A healthy adult. The Saharan silver ant is unique in that due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, and the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day. Dromedary camels and goats are the domesticated animals most commonly found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favourite animal used by nomads . Human activities are more likely to affect
1474-574: A second lieutenant, stationed at the 1st regiment of Grenadiers in Rome. Graziani's first posting was to Italian Eritrea where he learned Arabic and Tigrinya . In 1911, whilst in the Eritrean countryside, he was bitten by a snake which resulted in him being hospitalized. Because of this, he never served in the Italo-Turkish War . After his convalescence, he was repatriated to Italy where he
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#17327717964721608-569: A summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west. The southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha (a drought-tolerant member of the Chenopodiaceae ), or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus , a grass typical of the Sahel. According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm (5.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation (this
1742-542: A surface feature of Earth, with near-current technology. The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada (stone plateaus); ergs (sand seas – large areas covered with sand dunes ) form only a minor part, contrary to common misconception , but many of the sand dunes are over 180 metres (590 ft) high. Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains ( reg ), dry valleys ( wadi ), dry lakes ( oued ), and salt flats ( shatt or chott ). Unusual landforms include
1876-538: A target for the Allies, with Free France and British desert troops beginning a long battle for its conquest. On 31 January 1941 Pat Clayton , an explorer recruited by British Intelligence, was captured by the Italian Auto-Saharan Company near Jebel Sherif , when leading "T" Patrol in reconnaissance of the planned attack on Kufra. The Free French from Chad , with General Leclerc leading
2010-684: A trial against Graziani, especially for the massacres he ordered in February 1937. On 4 March 1948, charges against Graziani were presented to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. The commission was presented with evidence of the Italian policy of systematic terrorism and Graziani's self-admitted intention to execute all Amharas authorities and cited a telegram from Graziani to General Nasi, in which Graziani had written, "Keep in mind also that I have already aimed at
2144-527: Is a desert spanning across North Africa . With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic . The name "Sahara" is derived from Arabic : صَحَارَى , romanized : ṣaḥārā /sˤaħaːraː/ , a broken plural form of ṣaḥrā' ( صَحْرَاء /sˤaħraːʔ/ ), meaning "desert". The desert covers much of North Africa , excluding
2278-608: Is a long-term average, since precipitation varies annually). Important cities located in the Sahara include Nouakchott , the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset , Ouargla , Béchar , Hassi Messaoud , Ghardaïa , and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; Ghat in Libya; and Faya-Largeau in Chad. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert . It is located in
2412-422: Is a north African gazelle that can also go for a long time without water. Other notable gazelles include the rhim gazelle and dama gazelle . The Saharan cheetah ( northwest African cheetah ) lives in Algeria, Togo , Niger, Mali, Benin , and Burkina Faso . There remain fewer than 250 mature cheetahs, which are very cautious, fleeing any human presence. The cheetah avoids the sun from April to October, seeking
2546-629: Is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara, during the Neolithic Subpluvial . Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero , located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert . The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara. The Kiffians were skilled hunters . Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in
2680-524: Is an elliptic shaped basin , oriented northeast-southwest. The major axis is 50 km (31 mi), the minor 20 km (12 mi) long. It is bordered by hills which are at most 100 m high. The soil consists of red marl or sand and in the lowest parts there are salt lakes or dried salines. In the basin lie the following oases: On the north edge of the basin, there is the village of El Tag , which means crown in Arabic, which does not contain an oasis. It
2814-465: Is associated with high rates of wind-blown mineral dust, and these dust levels are found as expected in marine cores from the north tropical Atlantic. But around 12,500 BCE the amount of dust in the cores in the Bølling / Allerød phase suddenly plummets and shows a period of much wetter conditions in the Sahara, indicating a Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) event (a sudden warming followed by a slower cooling of
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#17327717964722948-403: Is estimated to include five hundred species of plants, which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds, by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long roots that travel horizontally to reach
3082-513: Is no need in telling you about the dirt, hunger and continuous humiliations. There were also cells for women and children. They were kept separated from us. Women won't ever tell the truth because of shame, but it's useful to make everybody aware of what happened to women in Kufra. They were raped in front of their husbands, their brothers. They used pieces of iron, sticks... It's shameful. They treated us like beasts. (Yakob, another boy from Eritrea) At
3216-667: Is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert: this is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rainless" place on the planet, rivaling the Atacama Desert , lying in Chile and Peru . The rainfall inhibition and the dissipation of cloud cover are most accentuated over the eastern section of the Sahara rather than the western. The prevailing air mass lying above
3350-422: Is very unreliable and erratic in the Sahara as it may vary considerably year by year. In full contrast to the negligible annual rainfall amounts, the annual rates of potential evaporation are extraordinarily high, roughly ranging from 2,500 millimetres (100 in) per year to more than 6,000 millimetres (240 in) per year in the whole desert. Nowhere else on Earth has air been found as dry and evaporative as in
3484-543: The Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75 °C (167 °F) has been measured in Borkou , northern Chad. Due to lack of cloud cover and very low humidity, the desert usually has high diurnal temperature variations between days and nights. However, it is a myth that the nights are especially cold after extremely hot days in the Sahara. On average, nighttime temperatures tend to be 13–20 °C (23–36 °F) cooler than in
3618-488: The Algerian Desert called Bou Bernous , at an elevation of 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level, and only Death Valley, California rivals it. Other hot spots in Algeria such as Adrar , Timimoun , In Salah , Ouallene , Aoulef , Reggane with an elevation between 200 and 400 metres (660 and 1,310 ft) above sea level get slightly lower summer average highs, around 46 °C (114.8 °F) during
3752-677: The First World War , when several soldiers of the Entente were held prisoner there. In 1929, the Sanusi center of Kufra in the Sahara was pointed out as a center of the Trans-Saharan slave trade . In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra , considered a strategic region, leading about 3,000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers. Many refugees fled
3886-532: The Italian Social Movement and becoming its Honorary President in 1953, probably for his career during the Fascist period in Italy, and died a few years later in 1955. Rodolfo Graziani was born in Filettino in the province of Frosinone on August 11, 1882. His father, Filippo Graziani, was the village doctor. He was educated in a seminary in the town of Subiaco and then went on to study in
4020-765: The Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians , early Holocene Capsians , and mid-Holocene Mechta groups, whereas the Tenerian crania are more like those of Mediterranean groups. Graves show that the Tenerians observed spiritual traditions, as they were buried with artifacts such as jewelry made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, estimated through their teeth as being five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on
4154-762: The Niger River valley and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa . The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including the western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains , the Tibesti Mountains , the Aïr Mountains , the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert . For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000-year cycle caused by
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4288-694: The Richat Structure in Mauritania. Several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains , Ahaggar Mountains , Saharan Atlas , Tibesti Mountains , Adrar des Iforas , and the Red Sea Hills . The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi , a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid , with sparse vegetation. The northern and southern reaches of
4422-776: The US IV Corps , and on 1 May, he ordered the Army Group Liguria under his command to surrender. At the end of World War II, Graziani spent a few days in the San Vittore Prison in Milan before he was transferred to Allied control. He was brought back to Africa in Anglo-American custody and stayed there until February 1946. Allied forces then felt the danger of his assassination or lynching had passed (many thousands of fascists were murdered in Italy in
4556-474: The horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge , a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from the upper troposphere usually descends, warming and drying the lower troposphere and preventing cloud formation. The permanent absence of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As
4690-514: The precession of Earth's axis (about 26,000 years) as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African monsoon . The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria , Chad , Egypt , Libya , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Western Sahara and Sudan , and parts of southern Morocco and Tunisia . It covers 9 million square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), 31% of
4824-569: The 10th Army invaded Egypt on 9 September against the British screening force. The Italians captured Sidi Barrani in Egypt against light British resistance and then prepared a series of fortified camps to defend their positions. In December 1940, in Operation Compass the British counterattacked and completely defeated the 10th Army. On 25 March 1941, Graziani was replaced by General Italo Gariboldi . Graziani remained mostly inactive for
4958-570: The 1920s and 1930s, first in Libya and then in Ethiopia . He became infamous for harsh repressive measures, such as the use of concentration camps that caused many civilian deaths, and for extreme measures taken against the native resistance of the countries invaded by the Italian army, such as the hanging of Omar Mukhtar . Due to his brutal methods used in Libya, he was nicknamed Il macellaio del Fezzan ("the butcher of Fezzan "). In February 1937, after an assassination attempt against him during
5092-566: The 4th Alpine Division 'Monte Rosa' , the ENR divisions that trained are from Germany. When Mussolini fled northward on 25 April 1945, Graziani was left as the de facto leader of what remained of the Italian Social Republic. Mussolini was captured and executed on 28 April 1945 . In the following day Axis troops in northern Italy surrendered . Graziani sent a delegation to surrender all RSI troops. On 30 April, he handed himself on
5226-509: The African continent. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (9.8 in) were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division . The Sahara is so large and bright that, in theory, it could be detected from other stars as
5360-417: The African humid period. At its largest extent, sometime before 5000 BCE, Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes, and is estimated to have covered an area of 350,000 km . The Sahara pump theory describes this cycle. During periods of a wet or " Green Sahara ", the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and fauna become more common. Following inter-pluvial arid periods,
5494-589: The Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies and because he was his worst enemy during the fascist period). He was appointed Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic by Mussolini and oversaw the mixed Italo-German Army Group Liguria ( Armee Ligurien ). Graziani defeated Allied forces in the December 1944 " Battle of Garfagnana " and led a joint Italian-German force that included the Italian 2nd Grenadier Division 'Littorio', 3rd Marine Division 'San Marco' and
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5628-412: The Great Desert the hottest large region in the world, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots. The average high temperature exceeds 38 to 40 °C (100.4 to 104.0 °F) during the hottest month nearly everywhere in the desert except at very high altitudes. The world's highest officially recorded average daily high temperature was 47 °C (116.6 °F) in a remote desert town in
5762-713: The International Space Station. The Libyan government also has a project called the Great Manmade River to pump and transport these groundwater reserves to the coast to support Libya's growing population and industrial development. As of December 2011, the excessive exploitation of the aquifer has provoked the complete drying up of the lake in the oasis. 24°11′N 23°17′E / 24.183°N 23.283°E / 24.183; 23.283 Sahara Desert The Sahara ( / s ə ˈ h ɑːr ə / , / s ə ˈ h ær ə / )
5896-486: The Intertropical Convergence Zone from the south and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Timbuktu, Mali and Agadez , Niger are found in this zone. The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of
6030-404: The Italian conquest eastwards via Uweinat into Egypt. The British explorer Pat Clayton , engaged in mapping areas of previously unmapped desert, encountered the Kufra refugees when running triangulation from Wadi Halfa to Uweinat, and helped save many from death in the arid desert. The Frankfurter Zeitung reporter and author Muhammad Asad interviewed a man from Kufra after its seizure by
6164-577: The Italians did not have their commanders subjected to prosecutions by Allied tribunals. In the early 1950s, Graziani had some involvement with the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), and he became the "Honorary President" of the party in 1953. Though the MSI saw Graziani as a figurehead , they also believed politically he could not be trusted as he had too often refused to obey the party’s directives. He would later explain his motivations for joining
6298-409: The Italians in his book The Road to Mecca . According to Asad's source, the Italians attacked from three sides, with armored cars, artillery, and aircraft. The defenders, a few hundred men with only small arms unable to penetrate the Italian armor, defended the place house-to-house but were overwhelmed. The Italians (and their Eritrean auxiliaries) then raped the women, tore up a Koran and cast it on
6432-523: The Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years. After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area. Gobero was discovered in 2000 during an archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno , which sought dinosaur remains. Two distinct prehistoric cultures were discovered at the site: the early Holocene Kiffian culture, and
6566-689: The League of Nations irrefutable evidence of what the Italian military had done from within a few hours of its invasion on 3 October 1935 to 10 April of the following year, no action was taken. Incidents included the use of poison gas and the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and ambulances. In 1943, the United States proposed to the Allies replacing the League of Nations with a new body, the United Nations . The United Nations War Crimes Commission
6700-608: The Liceo Torquato Tasso in Rome. Due to economic restraints, Graziani could not apply to the Military Academy of Modena and so decided to study law at university instead, at the urging of the father. In 1903, he joined the Royal Italian Army as a reserve officer cadet whilst studying at university. In 1906, he passed a competitive examination for reserve officers to be made regular and became
6834-543: The Oasis of Archei, then arrived, after 4 months travelling with the king of the Garamantes, to the river Bahr Salamat and Bahr Aouk , near modern-day Central African Republic in a region then called Agisymba. In 1154 al-Idrisi described a place identified by Lewicki as the oasis of Kufra. Al Idrisi writes that the place was once flourishing and peopled, but was by that point in ruin, its wells dry, its herds returned to
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#17327717964726968-462: The Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch , among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad. The deathstalker scorpion can be 10 cm (3.9 in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills
7102-531: The Sahara area then reverts to desert conditions and the flora and fauna are forced to retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains , southwards into West Africa , or eastwards into the Nile Valley . This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates , forcing them to adapt , possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation . It is also proposed that humans accelerated
7236-400: The Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive. This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does reduce
7370-441: The Sahara is the continental tropical (cT) air mass, which is hot and dry. Hot, dry air masses primarily form over the North-African desert from the heating of the vast continental land area, and it affects the whole desert during most of the year. Because of this extreme heating process, a thermal low is usually noticed near the surface, and is the strongest and the most developed during the summertime. The Sahara High represents
7504-407: The Sahara region. However, at least two instances of snowfall have been recorded in Sahara, in February 1979 and December 2016, both in the town of Ain Sefra . One theory for the formation of the Sahara is that the monsoon in Northern Africa was weakened because of glaciation during the Quaternary period, starting two or three million years ago. Another theory is that the monsoon was weakened when
7638-548: The Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs , including Afrovenator , Jobaria and Ouranosaurus , have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is not lush in vegetation, except in the Nile Valley, at a few oases , and in the northern highlands, where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. Shifts in Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation, which caused an abrupt beginning of North Africa desertification about 5,400 years ago. The Kiffian culture
7772-449: The age of 72. More than 100,000 people came to his funeral in front of the church of Saint Bellarmino in Rome. Crowds holding banners, singing hymns and giving fascist salutes packed the streets. In August 2012, $ 160,000 of public money was used to help finance the building of a large monument atop Graziani's tomb in Affile . The subscription was supplemented by private funding from the mayor of Affile, Ercole Viri. The new mausoleum
7906-412: The amount of rainfall received – the Northern (Mediterranean), Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones – the Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone. The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants . Approximately a quarter of these are endemic . About half of these species are common to the flora of the Arabian deserts. The central Sahara
8040-422: The ancient Tethys Sea dried up during the Tortonian period around 7 million years ago. The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years, believed to be caused by long-term changes in the North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon – usually southward. The cycle is caused by a 41,000-year cycle in which
8174-421: The atmospheric circulation itself, the desert is made even drier by its geographical configuration and location. Indeed, the extreme aridity of the Sahara is not only explained by the subtropical high pressure: the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also help to enhance the aridity of the northern part of the desert. These major mountain ranges act as a barrier, causing a strong rain shadow effect on
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#17327717964728308-409: The attempt on his life, Graziani authorized the massacre of the monks of the ancient monastery of Debre Libanos and a large number of pilgrims, who had traveled there to celebrate the feast day of the founding saint of the monastery. Graziani's suspicion of the Ethiopian Orthodox clergy (and the fact that the wife of one of the assassins had briefly taken sanctuary at the monastery) had convinced him of
8442-402: The beginning of the 1970s, Libya launched a great cultivation project in Kufra aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. LEPA irrigation is provided by fossil water beneath the ground surface, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System , a non-renewable source and the only accessible water resource in the area. Rotors (high sprinkler that rotates) provide irrigation and the obtained circles have
8576-419: The boundaries and the need of people working in local productive activities. The village of Kufra has long been suspected and accused by European Parliamentary delegations as being criminally instrumental in assisting migrants. In 2007, they defined Kufra as "a free zone, a sort of starting Centre of Temporary Permanence CPT against the law... These gathering centres are places, in which the first contacts with
8710-448: The climate). The moister Saharan conditions had begun about 12,500 BCE, with the extension of the ITCZ northward in the northern hemisphere summer, bringing moist wet conditions and a savanna climate to the Sahara, which (apart from a short dry spell associated with the Younger Dryas ) peaked during the Holocene thermal maximum climatic phase at 4000 BCE when mid-latitude temperatures seem to have been between 2 and 3 degrees warmer than in
8844-400: The consternation of many Ethiopians. In 1950, an Italian military tribunal sentenced Graziani to 19 years in jail for collaborating with the Nazis, but he was released after only four months because his lawyers demonstrated that his actions had been only after he "received orders". He never faced any further prosecutions for any other specific war crimes. Unlike the Germans and the Japanese,
8978-433: The controls in Libya increase, the streams are diverted towards Malta . When the migratory stream is over, the routes are back on Libya and Tunisia ." The 1,500-kilometre-long (930 mi) route towards the coastal Libyan towns is done at night on covered trucks. Such journey conditions are described as "hellish". People are often stopped by the police and therefore the route is covered many times in both directions. Once
9112-452: The creation of a detention camp at Kufra. Kufra jail is defined by Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants, who stayed there, as: ...a place of death. When you hear the sound of the keys in the cell lock your blood freezes. You have to turn towards the wall. If you look them in the eyes, they beat you repeatedly. (Daniel, 22 years old, from Eritrea) We were about 700 people, about 100 Ethiopians, 200 Eritreans and 400 from Chad and Sudan. We slept on
9246-553: The crews subsequently died due to lack of water. After the Axis were expelled from North Africa, and when after the war it became part of independent Libya , the Buma airfield at Kufra was used little and fell into disrepair. The town surrounding the oasis is still dominated by the old fort of El Tag , built by the Italians in the mid-1930s. On 26 August 2008, a hijacked Sudanese Boeing 737 landed at Kufra Airport after having departed from Nyala Airport , Darfur , for Khartoum . Earlier, Egyptian authorities had refused to allow
9380-447: The crime of "fascism apology" for building the monument and were given jail sentences, although the court did not order the removal of the monument. Graziani wrote several books, the most important of which are: also: Graziani was portrayed by British actor Oliver Reed in the 1981 war film Lion of the Desert . On its release, it was banned by the Italian government because, in the words of Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti , it
9514-539: The criminal orders. The British government was the firmest supporter of that stance, and the United States pursued a policy "largely characterized by ambivalence towards Italian aggression". The Ethiopian government made a direct request to the " Four Policemen ", but that was immediately rejected on technical grounds. In addition, many in the Italian press firmly opposed any Italian officer being put on trial for war crimes. Faced with such resistance and indifference, Ethiopia had no choice but to back down from their requests, to
9648-517: The criminal organizations occur. Such organizations promote the "journey of hope", with a flexible handling of the Migrants' African routes according to the restriction policies adopted by the various governments. The minds of the criminal organizations act accordingly to what happens in each country: if Morocco stresses its restrain policies, the routes move towards the Canary Islands , if
9782-474: The daytime. The smallest variations are found along the coastal regions due to high humidity and are often even lower than a 10 °C (18 °F) difference, while the largest variations are found in inland desert areas where the humidity is the lowest, mainly in the southern Sahara. Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold, as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas. The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in
9916-469: The desert experiences around three to five months when the average high strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F); while in the southern central part of the desert, there are up to six or seven months when the average high temperature strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F). Some examples of this are Bilma , Niger and Faya-Largeau, Chad. The annual average daily temperature exceeds 20 °C (68 °F) everywhere and can approach 30 °C (86 °F) in
10050-530: The desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub , with trees and taller shrubs in wadis , where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft , the Ténéré , the Libyan Desert , the Eastern Desert , the Nubian Desert and others. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years. To
10184-531: The drying-out period from 6000 to 2500 BCE by pastoralists overgrazing available grassland. The growth of speleothems (which requires rainwater) was detected in Hol-Zakh, Ashalim , Even-Sid, Ma'ale-ha-Meyshar, Ktora Cracks, Nagev Tzavoa Cave, and elsewhere, and has allowed tracking of prehistoric rainfall. The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 kya (thousands of years ago). Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90–87 kya, but it still
10318-667: The eastern continental extension of the Azores High , centered over the North Atlantic Ocean . The subsidence of the Sahara High nearly reaches the ground during the coolest part of the year, while it is confined to the upper troposphere during the hottest periods. The effects of local surface low pressure are extremely limited because upper-level subsidence still continues to block any form of air ascent. Also, to be protected against rain-bearing weather systems by
10452-614: The edge of the desert thousands of years ago, since the end of the last glacial period . In the Central Sahara, engraved and painted rock art were created perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago, spanning the Bubaline Period , Kel Essuf Period , Round Head Period , Pastoral Period , Caballine Period , and Cameline Period . The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive, with half found in
10586-822: The fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb , and the Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan . It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel , a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around
10720-522: The fighting for the town after the rebels put up only light resistance. By 6 May 2011 the town had been retaken by the Libyan rebels. In February 2012, fighting between the Tobu and Zuwayya tribes killed over a hundred people and the town became a focal point for mass human rights violations of refugees and migrants. Kufra is situated in the middle of the Sahara for its pristine desert beauty, so that tours to
10854-490: The floor, one on the other, there wasn't even a place to lay down. For lunch: a fist of white rice for the all day, less than 570 grams each. There were also some baguettes, but you needed money to get them... (an ex-colonel of the Eritrean army, political refugee in Italy) When I saw Kufra I wanted to hitch up. They took my mobile phone and all the money I had in my pocket and put me in to a cell with other 20 people. There
10988-484: The flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara significantly. The average annual rainfall ranges from very low in the northern and southern fringes of the desert to nearly non-existent over the central and the eastern part. The thin northern fringe of the desert receives more winter cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of low pressure systems over the Mediterranean Sea along
11122-564: The ground, cut down the palm trees, burnt Sayyid Ahmad's library, and took some of the elders and scholars and hurled them to their death from airplanes. In the following years the Italians built an airfield (now Kufra Airport ) in Buma oasis and a fort in El Tag , which dominated the area. Buma airport was equipped with a radio-centre for flight assistance and was often used as a stop for routes toward Asmara and Italian East Africa . The fort
11256-431: The group: ‘I joined the MSI because it mirrors my beliefs and convictions. However, it would be absurd to think that a new Fascist dictatorship could be set up today. History teaches us that dictatorships don’t spring up like mushrooms.' During the summer of 1954, Graziani resigned from MSI. By autumn 1954, Graziani was losing strength and he began experiencing mounting health issues. His mental health had deteriorated to
11390-699: The habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization . Researchers from Hacettepe University have reported that Saharan soil may have bio-available iron and also some essential macro and micro nutrient elements suitable for use as fertilizer for growing wheat. People lived on
11524-405: The highest recorded worldwide. The sky is usually clear above the desert, and the sunshine duration is extremely high everywhere in the Sahara. Most of the desert has more than 3,600 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 82% of daylight hours), and a wide area in the eastern part has over 4,000 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 91% of daylight hours). The highest values are very close to
11658-551: The hottest months of the year. Salah, well known in Algeria for its extreme heat, has average high temperatures of 43.8 °C (110.8 °F), 46.4 °C (115.5 °F), 45.5 °C (113.9 °F) and 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) in June, July, August and September respectively. There are even hotter spots in the Sahara, but they are located in extremely remote areas, especially in the Azalai , lying in northern Mali. The major part of
11792-491: The hottest regions year-round. However, most of the desert has a value in excess of 25 °C (77 °F). Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high: it can easily reach 80 °C (176 °F) or more. A sand temperature of 83.5 °C (182.3 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan . Ground temperatures of 72 °C (161.6 °F) have been recorded in
11926-406: The last glacial period , the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries. The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend
12060-458: The late nineteenth century, The hypothesis was later formally proposed and tested by the meteorologist John Kutzbach in 1981. Kutzbach's ideas about the impacts of insolation on global monsoonal patterns have become widely accepted today as the underlying driver of long-term monsoonal cycles. Kutzbach never formally named his hypothesis and as such it is referred to here as the " Orbital Monsoon Hypothesis " as suggested by Ruddiman in 2001. During
12194-530: The leeward side by dropping much of the humidity brought by atmospheric disturbances along the polar front which affects the surrounding Mediterranean climates. The primary source of rain in the Sahara is the Intertropical Convergence Zone , a continuous belt of low-pressure systems near the equator which bring the brief, short and irregular rainy season to the Sahel and southern Sahara. Rainfall in this giant desert has to overcome
12328-419: The maximum area of water and to find any surface moisture, and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent water loss by evapotranspiration . Plant leaves may dry out totally and then recover. Several species of fox live in the Sahara including: the fennec fox , pale fox and Rüppell's fox . The addax , a large white antelope , can go nearly a year in the desert without drinking. The dorcas gazelle
12462-437: The middle Holocene Tenerian culture . The post-Kiffian desiccation lasted until around 4600 BCE, when the earliest artefacts associated with the Tenerians have been dated to. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero. The Tenerians were considerably shorter in height and less robust than the earlier Kiffians. Craniometric analysis also indicates that they were osteologically distinct. The Kiffian skulls are akin to those of
12596-594: The migrants arrive, or are brought back, in Kufra, the only way to escape this situation is to pay people traders, which are often colluded with the police officers. People brought back to the Sudanese border may reverse the course just with cash money. Hence the occurrence of continuous exploitation, enlistment in the work and prostitution black market, painful waiting for a money order urged by relatives and friends through mobile phone communications, which are allowed only for this aim. In 2005 Italy allocated funds for
12730-532: The monks' complicity in the attempt on his life. From 1939 to 1941, Graziani was Chief of Staff of the Regio Esercito . At the start of World War II , Graziani, now styled 1st Marquis of Neghelli, was still Commander-in-Chief of the Regio Esercito ' s General Staff. Graziani oversaw the Italian forces during the Italian invasion of France on June 1940. After the death of Marshal Italo Balbo in
12864-419: The next two years. During his time in Italy, he played a role in suppressing the Italian anti-fascist movement. Graziani was the only Italian Marshal to remain loyal to Mussolini after the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy , and he joined Mussolini in the north after the Italian surrender (some say that he chose to adhere to the Italian Social Republic for his dislike for Pietro Badoglio , who had signed
12998-527: The north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb , the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest, woodland, and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters. According to the botanical criteria of Frank White and geographer Robert Capot-Rey,
13132-477: The northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto , a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia . The northern limit also corresponds to the 100 mm (3.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation. To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with
13266-550: The oasis are organized by local tour operators. Migrants coming from the East African coast and the Near East pass through and compulsorily stop in Kufra. It is a little village of transit along the traditional route between Khartoum and the coastal Libyan towns, which has lately turned to be a spot gathering Libyan-Sudanese criminal organizations involved in the illegal transport of immigrants, police officers controlling
13400-707: The oasis from the north in 1879. Kufra was an important trade and travelling route for various nomadic desert people. In 1895 seeking greater independence the Senussi relocated from Jaghbub , making the oasis their main centre. However, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II twice sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to meet Sheikh Senussi to cultivate positive relations and counter the West European scramble for Africa (see Azmzade 2021). After that, Westerners could no longer visit it until
13534-459: The opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara". The idea that changes in insolation (solar heating) caused by long-term changes in Earth's orbit are a controlling factor for the long-term variations in the strength of monsoon patterns across the globe was first suggested by Rudolf Spitaler in
13668-419: The physical and atmospheric barriers that normally prevent the production of precipitation. The harsh climate of the Sahara is characterized by: extremely low, unreliable, highly erratic rainfall; extremely high sunshine duration values; high temperatures year-round; negligible rates of relative humidity ; a significant diurnal temperature variation ; and extremely high levels of potential evaporation which are
13802-513: The plane to land in their national capital, Cairo . In recent decades, Kufra has become a major point on the route of African migrants who try to reach Europe by various routes, and some of whom get incarcerated in Kufra's notorious prison. During the 2011 Libyan Civil War , the area was reported to be under control of anti-Gaddafi forces and not the government of Muammar Gaddafi on 2 April 2011. On 28 April 2011, loyalist forces reportedly re-captured Kufra. There were no reports of casualties in
13936-522: The point that he sometimes woke up thinking he was still imperial viceroy in Addis Ababa . By years end he was suffering from acute pain and on 26 December 1954, he underwent surgery. It went well and he began recovering during the first week of January 1955. On 10 January, his health suddenly rapidly declined. At midnight he went into a coma, briefly regaining consciousness at 4 am and stated his later words, ‘If my time has come, I’ll go calmly to be judged by God’. He died in Rome at 6 am on 11 January 1955 at
14070-401: The polar front, although very attenuated by the rain shadow effects of the mountains and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Biskra , Algeria, and Ouarzazate , Morocco, are found in this zone. The southern fringe of the desert along the border with the Sahel receives summer cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of
14204-532: The recent past. Analysis of Nile River deposited sediments in the delta also shows this period had a higher proportion of sediments coming from the Blue Nile , suggesting higher rainfall also in the Ethiopian Highlands . This was caused principally by a stronger monsoonal circulation throughout the sub-tropical regions, affecting India, Arabia and the Sahara. Lake Victoria only recently became
14338-693: The region. Kufra did not fall under the dominion of either the Arabs or the Ottomans and was part of a Toubou Sultanate with capital in Tazirbu. When the Arab tribes invaded southeastern Libya in the 1840s, the Toubou (Gourane) and Zaghawa tribes migrated from there. The territory of Kufra was first explored by Westerners beginning with the 1873/74 expedition by German Gerhard Rohlfs . Rohlfs reportedly first reached
14472-608: The same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet. The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height. Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups. Traces of
14606-463: The scale of the Nile floods between 2700 and 2100 BCE. The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions . With their variations in temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct communities of plants and animals. The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically , the Sahara has three zones based on
14740-521: The shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale. The other cheetah subspecies ( northeast African cheetah ) lives in Chad, Sudan and the eastern region of Niger. However, it is currently extinct in the wild in Egypt and Libya. There are approximately 2000 mature individuals left in the wild. Other animals include the monitor lizards , hyrax , sand vipers , and small populations of African wild dog , in perhaps only 14 countries and red-necked ostrich . Other animals exist in
14874-647: The source of the White Nile and dried out almost completely around 15 kya. The sudden subsequent movement of the ITCZ southwards with a Heinrich event (a sudden cooling followed by a slower warming), linked to changes with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, led to a rapid drying out of the Saharan and Arabian regions, which quickly became desert. This is linked to a marked decline in
15008-522: The southeastern Cyrenaica region of Libya, highlight the strategic importance of the oasis and why it was a point of conflict during World War II. The folk etymology associates the word Kufra as coming from the Arabic word kafir , the Arabic term for non-Muslims (often translated as "infidels", literally "those who conceal [the truth]"), with reference to the Toubou people native to the region. Kufra
15142-714: The southern front with a promotion to the rank of Marshal of Italy. During his tour of an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Dire Dawa, Graziani fell into a pit covered by an ornate carpet, a trap that he believed had been set by the Ethiopian priests to injure or kill him. As a result, he held Ethiopian clerics in deep suspicion. After the war, Graziani was made Viceroy of Italian East Africa and Governor-General of Shewa / Addis Ababa. After an unsuccessful attempt by two Eritreans to kill him on 19 February 1937 (and after murders of other Italians in occupied Ethiopia), Graziani ordered
15276-561: The strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04 in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8 in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000 sq mi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4 in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000 sq mi) (about 17% of
15410-665: The summer and autumn of 1945) and so moved Graziani to the Procida prison in Italy. Before the Second World War, the League of Nations did not prosecute Graziani and the Italian authorities for war crimes in Ethiopia. In one case, Graziani had ordered his troops to use chemical weapons against Nasibu Zeamanuel 's troops in Gorrahei on 10 October 1935. Although the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs gave
15544-562: The theoretical maximum value. A value of 4300 hours (98%) of the time would be recorded in Upper Egypt ( Aswan , Luxor ) and in the Nubian Desert ( Wadi Halfa ). The annual average direct solar irradiation is around 2,800 kWh/(m year) in the Great Desert. The Sahara has a huge potential for solar energy production. The high position of the Sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make
15678-472: The tilt of the earth changes between 22° and 24.5°. At present, it is in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15,000 years. When the North African monsoon is at its strongest, annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the " green Sahara ". For a relatively weak North African monsoon,
15812-478: The total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2 in) or less. The annual average rainfall is virtually zero over a wide area of some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) in the eastern Sahara comprising deserts of: Libya, Egypt and Sudan ( Tazirbu , Kufra , Dakhla , Kharga , Farafra , Siwa , Asyut , Sohag , Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel , Wadi Halfa) where the long-term mean approximates 0.5 millimetres (0.02 in) per year. Rainfall
15946-440: The total destruction of Abyssinian chiefs and notables and that this should be carried out completely in your territories". The UN Commission agreed that there was a prima facie case against eight Italians, including Graziani. However, the Allies questioned the veracity of Ethiopia's claim against the Italians on the grounds that it was impossible to identify which individuals in the Italian military hierarchy had actually issued
16080-652: The wild. In the late 15th century, Leo Africanus reported an oasis in the land of the Berdoa , visited by a caravan coming from Awjila . It is possible that this oasis was identical with either the Al Jawf or the Tazirbu oasis, and on early modern maps, the Al Kufra region was often labelled as Berdoa based on this report. Berdoa possibly corresponded to the Toubou , a Nilo-Saharan speaking tribal people indigenous to
16214-429: Was "damaging to the honor of the army". Graziani was also portrayed by Rodolfo Dal Pra in the Italian film Last Days of Mussolini . The Italian singer and composer Franco Battiato included a reference to Graziani in his song "Lettera al Governatore della Libia" (Letter to the governor of Libya) with the phrase "Lo sai che quell'idiota di Graziani farà una brutta fine" (You know that the idiotic Graziani will have
16348-528: Was Badoglio and not Graziani who entered Addis Ababa in triumph after his " March of the Iron Will ". But it was Graziani who said: "The Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians." Addis Ababa fell to Badoglio on 5 May 1936. Graziani had wanted to reach Harar before Badoglio reached Addis Ababa, but failed to do so. Even so, on 9 May, Graziani was rewarded for his role as commander of
16482-538: Was also used as a radio post to guide in Italian aircraft as well as to maintain communication with Italian East Africa. Kufra grew in importance when the Second World War started and, after the Suez Canal was closed to Italian shipping, connections with Italian East Africa became mainly aerial, using Kufra and its strategic location. Kufra, due to its key role for the Italian Royal Army , soon became
16616-612: Was an Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy 's Royal Army , primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World War II . A dedicated fascist and prominent member of the National Fascist Party , he was a key figure in the Italian military during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini . Graziani played an important role in the consolidation and expansion of the Italian colonial empire during
16750-622: Was appointed Governor of Italian Somaliland . During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935 and 1936, Graziani was the commander of the southern front. His army invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somaliland and he commanded the Italian forces at the battles of Genale Doria and the Ogaden . However, Graziani's efforts in the south were secondary to the main invasion launched from Eritrea by Generale Emilio De Bono , later continued by Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio . It
16884-567: Was created to investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Axis powers in World War II . On 31 December 1946, Ambaye Wolde Mariam from The Ethiopian War Crimes Commission presented to the UN War Crimes Commission its preliminary findings against Graziani. This related, however, to the period before WWII. The Ethiopian government felt it would have no difficulty from the sufficient amount of evidence it had to justify
17018-675: Was engraved with the words "Fatherland" and "Honor". Local left-wing politicians and national commentators harshly criticized the monument whereas the town's "mostly conservative" population approved. Public funding for the Graziani monument was suspended by the newly elected Lazio administration after the 2013 regional elections. A statement from Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Graziani did not deserve to be memorialized but instead be condemned in history for his war crimes, genocidal behavior and crimes against humanity . In 2017, Viri and two other Affile town councillors were convicted of
17152-526: Was founded by Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi , the son of the founder of the Senussi order, when he moved to Kufra and is considered the holy place of Senussi. Kufra has a hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification : BWh ). Claudius Ptolemy wrote that around 90 AD Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) carried out a mainly commercial expedition. From the Sirte gulf he reached the Oasis of Cufra and
17286-496: Was included on its list of Italians eligible to be prosecuted for war crimes but Allied opposition and indifference to the prosecution of Italian war criminals frustrated Ethiopian attempts to bring him to justice. In 1950, an Italian court sentenced Graziani to 19 years of imprisonment for his collaboration with the Nazis ; he was released after serving only four months. In the last years of his life, he went into politics, entering in
17420-403: Was initially counteracted by the monsoon , which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BCE, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara. The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. Lake Chad is the remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad, which existed during
17554-470: Was just one tenth the rainfall around 125 kya. In the southern Negev Desert speleothems did not grow between 185 and 140 kya ( MIS 6), 110–90 (MIS 5.4–5.2), nor after 85 kya nor during most of the interglacial period (MIS 5.1), the glacial period and Holocene . This suggests that the southern Negev was arid-to-hyper-arid in these periods. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Sahara
17688-575: Was more extensive than it is now with the extent of the tropical forests being greatly reduced, and the lower temperatures reduced the strength of the Hadley Cell . This is a climate cell which causes rising tropical air of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to bring rain to the tropics, while dry descending air, at about 20 degrees north , flows back to the equator and brings desert conditions to this region. It
17822-461: Was promoted to captain. In 1918, during World War I , Graziani in the Regio Esercito became the youngest Colonnello (Colonel) in Italian history. In 1930, the Fascist government appointed Graziani Vice-Governor of Cyrenaica and commander of the Italian forces in Libya . He served there until 1934. During those four years, he suppressed the Senussi rebellion . In this so-called "pacification", he
17956-542: Was responsible for the construction of several concentration camps and labor camps , where thousands of Libyan prisoners died. Some prisoners were hanged, such as Omar Mukhtar , or shot, but most prisoners died of starvation or disease. His deeds earned him the nickname " the Butcher of Fezzan " among the Arabs. Fascist propaganda, however, called him the Pacifier of Libya ( Pacificatore della Libia ). In 1935, Graziani
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