Tajura (Arabic: تاجوراء Tājūrā’), also spelt Tajoura, is a city in Libya, in the Tripoli District (Tarabulus District),[1] on the Mediterranean coast 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east of Tripoli in the Tripolitania region.[2]
From 2001 to 2007 Tajura was in and the capital of the Tajura Wa Al Nawahi AlArba' District. Tajura is also known to be the most Anti-Gaddafi district in Tripoli, had high casualties in the February 17th uprising. and was the first district in Tripoli to be out of Gadhafi forces control.
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The Ottoman Turks established a base at Tajura in 1531.[3] Under the command of Khayr al-Din, the site was selected for its proximity to Tripoli which had come under the Knights of Malta in 1530 when Charles V of Spain, as King of Sicily, had given them Tripoli, Gozo and Malta. Tripoli was captured in the Siege of Tripoli (1551).
Legend has it that the city is called "Tajura" because a long time ago, a beautiful queen used to rule Tajura and her name was Ura, and she had a jeweled crown, which was called a taj in Arabic. One day, this queen lost her taj, and she ordered her people to look for it. Her people started to look for her taj by saying where is taj Ura, and they never found it, but the city was named after the searchers' cry: "Tajura". A less whimsical suggestion of origin is that the city was called taj because it was like a crown on the bluff above the sea.
Tajura was the center of Libya's nuclear research, with a 10 megawatt reactor, built by the Soviet Union, which came online in 1981.[4]
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