Libya is perhaps one of the few countries in the world where the natural heritage has remained unspoilt, and where the environment has not yet been threatened by the technology of the modern day.This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that the country, although vast in geographical area is relatively low in population density. In fact, Libya has one of the lowest rates in terms of the number of people to the square kilometre. More so, the overall topography of the country shows that Libya is also virtually unprotected from the effects imposed, largely in meteorological terms, by its most prominent geographical features.These are, the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, which combine to create climatic contrasts that are exemplified by the green mountain pleasantness o such areas as the “Jebel Akhdar”, and the scorched barrenness of the desert hinterland.Therefore, it is not surprising that over the centuries only the coastal areas were cultivated. The earlier civilizations had neither the technology, nor the knowledge to bring water from the desert or to carry water into the interior to enlarge the coastal belt.Statistics related to the period before the First of September 1969 Revolution indicate that the eastern and the western coastal areas comprised only about two per cent of the entire territory, and this relatively small area was the only one that was actively cultivated.These figures represent a very poor performance for a period related to the time of the Italian occupation, and the immediate post war years, when technology was advanced enough to permit greater efforts.Indeed, other statistics released during those years indicate that there was complete indifference towards the welfare of the people, and this is demonstrated by the fact that, for instance, only one per cent of the land was forested, and only four per cent of the territory was used for grazing purposes.Today, the situation is vastly different. The immense progress that the country has made in agriculture is manifest in the fact that the land is producing enough for home consumption, and in the case of several products, particularly fruit, a surplus is being cultivated and exported.Libya is made up of three different and principal regions, each of which, in earlier times, maintained a separate identity. Until the Revolution there was a political and perhaps even a physical division between these three regions, namely, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and the Fezzan.Generally speaking, Cyrenaica represents the eastern half of the country and Tripolitania the western half, with both regions running along the Mediterranean littoral, as opposed to the Fezzan, which lies in the hinterland of Libya.Because of their strategic location and important geographic position, both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were, for many hundreds of years, of economic and military importance to many of the ancient civilizations.It was along the northern fringes of these two regions that the Phoenicians had settle, and later the Greeks and the Romans. Therefore they played an important role in the story of the development of the region of the Mediterranean.The pre-desert of Sirte bound Tripolitania in the east. In the west it borders the Tunisian and Algerian deserts, and in the south of the Sahara.Physically, the region of Tripolitania rises gradually from the northern littoral in a series of shallow steps that being with the line of hills that border the interior of the coastal plain, the Jafara.In turn, the Jafara gives way to the unspectacular semi desert which is to be found upland, and which consists mainly of stony sand and scrub.It is an area characteristic of the entire North African continent and the same landscape continues southwards, with regular monotony for several hundred kilometres.Several documentaries that have been filmed in the area give the impression that the overall effect is one of gentle sloping from the south to the north, which is from the hinterland towards the Mediterranean.Cyrenaica is considered to be an equally important region of the country, although until a few years ago, that is before the Al Fateh revolution, it was looked upon as second in terms of importance.The territory of Cyrenaica lies in the east and it borders Egypt, as it extends from the Bay of Sirte to the Bay of Sollu. It includes he hilly costal regions and the tablelands that gradually descend towards the south. The main geographical difference between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania is perhaps the fact that the eastern region rises more sharply from the coastal belt. In fact, Cyrenaica gives rise to two narrow shelves, each of them but a few kilometres in width, which reach the plateau some six hundred and fifteen metres above the level of the sea.This rise provides the characteristic panorama of Cyrenaica, particularly so, of the eastern coastline, which consists of sweeping beaches commanded by a backdrop of undulating hills.A picture effect is added by the fact that the fringes of this range of hills reach almost to the edge of the sea.It is here, in the northern uplands that the “Jebel Akhdar” rises. This range is itself the result of the heaving and cracking of the surface of the earth that must have taken place countless of years ago.The “Jebel” provides a postcard effect, in the sense that it sheers off into the Gulf of Sirte, and slopes in a gentler fashion onto the desert of the east.
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