Africa is one of the largest continents on the planet, second only to Eurasia in area. Its shores from different parts of the world are washed by two oceans and two seas. The Indian Ocean is from the east and south, and the Atlantic is from the west. The northern part of the mainland is washed by two seas: the Mediterranean and the Red. Part of the border of the Mediterranean Sea from the south washes the coastline of the North African state of Libya. This is the Gulf of Sidra.
Geographical characteristic
The width of the entrance to the bay is up to 500 km. From the entrance to the Gulf of Sidra, where the main port of Benghazi is located, about 100 km. A coastline stretching up to 700 km across the territory of the state of Libya.
The depth of the bay is about 1800 m. The Gulf of Sidra in the photo can hardly be distinguished from another vast expanse of sea space. The movement of the sea along the coastline is characterized by daily tides up to 0.5 m.
Name Hypothesis
The origin of the modern name of the Gulf of Sidra is not unambiguous and hasseveral hypotheses. The main version claims that the name was formed from the rearrangement of the sounds "rt" into "dr" in the Arabic word "sert", meaning "desert". Other versions tend to use the Greek origin. From the word "sirtos" - shallow. But the first one is more convincing, since the entire coastline of the bay is part of the northern border of Africa's largest desert. And its depth is large enough to be a shallow for Greek sailors. Although the influence of Greek culture in this area is great.
Main Ports
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya after the capital Tripoli. On its territory 500 years BC. e. was located the ancient Greek city of Esperides, which was one of the five major cities of ancient Cyrenaica.
It was located on the territory of the modern state of Libya in its northeastern part. Not so long ago, it was abolished as an administrative unit of the Libyan state. The ancient city of the ancient Greeks has always been under the gun of the Libyan tribes. Cyrenaica has changed rulers over the centuries. It was part of the empire of Alexander the Great and the Ottoman Empire. In the last century, it was an Italian colony for a short time, which did not suit the British.
Modern Cyrenaica declared autonomy in 2012. The reason for the current geopolitical conflicts associated with its territory is the large reserves of oil and gas in its bowels. The modern port of Benghazi receives and sends all kinds of cargo. Serves the tuna fishery in the Gulf of Sidra.
The ports of Mapca el Brega and Es Sider specialize only in the export of black gold and natural gas.
Through them, liquefied gas is delivered to European countries, Western countries, some countries in Africa and Asia.
Legal Status
From a legal point of view, the legal status of the Gulf of Sidra is not clear to this day. Libya considers it its territorial waters, based on historical premises, and international law tends to the status of neutral waters. In its norms, there is no legally fixed status of historical waters and historical bays. Many geopolitical ambitions are built on this gap in international law, and global disputes and conflicts are born.
Political conflicts
The long-suffering Africa has always been under the gun of geopolitical alignments. The Gulf of Sidra is no exception. A military coup not without the participation of NATO forces on October 20, 2011 in Libya was overthrown and killed by Muammar Gaddafi.
He ruled the country for 42 years and was its permanent leader. In the political structure of his country, he chose something between a capitalist monarchy and a socialist republic. Incomes from oil extracted from the bowels of Libya, he sent to the socio-economic development of the country. The price of gasoline in the country was so ridiculous that the price of water was several times higher! State programs for residential construction, he alth improvement andeducation.
During his reign, the country overcame illiteracy and achieved a fairly high standard of living for the majority of the country's population. He was respected inside the country and feared far beyond its borders. Gaddafi built a whole metropolis in the desert with a non-poor population! He knew the value of Libyan we alth and always defended the sovereignty of the country.
After the rebels came to power, the country fell apart. Separate territories began to be controlled by extremists. In the short term of the civil war, Libya sank to total poverty. At the end of 2015, the country was governed by two parliaments. One part of the country with authorities located in Tripoli was ruled by radical Islamists. The other part is in Torbuk, where the government recognized by the UN was operating, headed by Khalifa Haftar, who was elected in the elections to the National Libyan Parliament. On March 31, 2016, a consent government was formed. But the coastal area of the Gulf of Sidra is still not considered calm.
