Fezzan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fezzan (Arabic: فزان transliterated: Fuzzan) (Latin name Phasania) is a souht-eastern desert region and an ex Province or State ("muhafazah" or "wilayah") of Libya (alongside Tripolitania and Cyrenaica [1]), in an old system of administrative divisions which was abolished in the early 1970s in favour of a system of smaller-size municipality or "baladiyat" (singular "baladiyah"). The "Baladiyat"-system was subsequently changed many times and has lately become "Sha'biyat"-system. What used to be Fezzan in the old system is now divided up into several "Sha'biyat", see administrative divisions in Libya. The main city of the region is Sebha.

Fezzan is crossed in the north by the Ash-Shati Valley, in the west by the wadi Irawan. The region is inhabited (among others) by nomadic desert people (Tuareg), especially in non-urban areas and near the borders with Algeria and Niger where they often cross from one country to another (without formalities).

Free French troops occupied Murzuk, a chief town of Fezzan on 16 January 1943 and the area was under French military control until 1951 when Fezzan became part of the Kingdom of Libya.