Leg 340 HLKF Kufra (Libya) to HLLS Sebha (Libya)
HLKF - Airport Info
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ICAO code: HLKF
Airport name: Kufra
Location: Kufra
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Kufra Info
Kufra is an Oasis in Southeastern Libya that played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. It is in a particularly isolated location not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by Depressions, to the North and East specifically by the Qattara Depression. The French spelling is Koufra, the Italian Cufra.
The town surrounding the Oasis is dominated by the old fort of El Tag, built by the Italians in the mid-1930s. The fort was also used as a radio post to guide in Italian aircraft as well as to maintain communication with Italian East Africa. These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of the Fezzan region of Libya, explains the Oasis' strategic importance and why it was a point of conflict during World War II.
At the beginning of the '70s, Libya launched in Kufra a great cultivation project aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. LEPA irrigation is provided by fossil water beneath the ground surface, i.e. non-renewable source, and it is the only accessible water resource in the area. Rotors (high sprinkler that rotates) provide irrigation and the obtained circles have a diameter af about 1 km and can be observed from space.
HLLS - Airport Info
ICAO code: HLLS
Airport name: Sebha
Location: Sebha
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Sebha Info
Sebha is one of the municipalities of Libya. It is located in the center of the country. The capital is Sebha with a population of 130,000.
Sebha has one small domestic airport. It is the most important city of southern Libya. The population is mostly a mixture of Arab and Black. Unmixed Black are also a common ethnicity.
The Sahara Desert begins at Sebha. There are illegal passenger buses that arrive at this city from southern African countries such as Niger, a journey which takes seven days. It is one of the most dangerous routes as it goes through the desert. Bus drivers often lose their way and passengers sometimes die from lack of food and water. People from Ghana, Togo, and Sudan come through Sebha and then to Europe through Tripoli.
There is a big lake inside the Sahara Desert near Sebha named "Gaberoun". This was a village several years ago but now only a tourist spot.