Hun or Houn ( ar, هون, Hūn) is an oasis town in the northern

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

region of southwest

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

. The town is the capital of the

Jufra District Jufra or Jofra ( ar, الجفرة, Al Jufrah) is one of the districts of Libya. It is in the centre of the country. Its capital is Hun. Jufra was originally one of the 25 baladiya in the administrative system of Libya established in 1988. In 200 ...

. The "International Autumn Tourism Festival" is an annual

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

usually held at the end of September.

History

Hon el-Fuara, March 1941, Gruppe Schwerin, German Army

During the colonial

Italian Libya Libya ( it, Libia; ar, ليبيا, Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a colony of the Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica ...

period, Hun was the administrative capital of the Italian Fezzan region, called '' Territorio del Sahara Libico''. Hun was the Italian military center of southern Italian Libya, and was not part of the national Fourth Shore territory of the Kingdom of Italy as

Italian Tripolitania Italian Tripolitania was an Italian colony, located in present-day western Libya, that existed from 1911 to 1934. It was part of the territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire after the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. Italian Tripolitania included t ...

and Italian Cyrenaica. In the 1939 census Italians were 3% of the total population of 35,316 in the city. They disappeared from Hun after Italy's loss of Libya in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. An important Libyan Italian born in Hun was the internationally renowned painter Mario Schifano (1934–1998). In the 1930s the Italian government made some important improvements to the small town, including a connection to the coast via the new Fezzan Road. During the Libyan Civil War, on 8 May 2011,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

hit 8 headquarters compound buildings, 12 ammunition storage and 20 vehicle storage.

Geography

Hun is about halfway between Sabha and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

coast in the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. The natural landscape around Hun mainly consists of black basalt mountains, with extensive sand dunes, and date palm trees - ''Phoenix dactylifera'' groves indicating oases. The cities of Waddan and

Sokna Sokna is a small village located between Hønefoss and Krøderen in the municipality of Ringerike, in the county of Buskerud, Norway. Its population is 543. Location Sokna is located in the valley of Soknedalen, between the Sogna and Ver ...

are the nearest settlements. Hun is settiling in between of Waddan and Sokna, Hun is the biggest town in the area and population at Aljufra, It is considered the administrative capital of the region . There is a ruined

ksar Ksar or qsar (Maghrebi Arabic: wiktionary:قصر, قصر ''qṣer'' or ڭصر ''gser'', plural ''qṣur''; Berber language, Berber: ⵉⴴⵔⵎ ''aghrem'' or ''ighrem'', plural: ''igherman''), plural ksars, qsars, ksour or qsour, is the Nor ...

it was an Italian fort (Forti), It was restored and it is now the Saharawi Museum. There are also several old and new

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

s in the city . All three towns are oases characterized by the abundance of natural springs and date palm trees. Hun has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''BWh'') with long, extremely hot summers and short, warm winters as well as very little rainfall throughout the year. In this part of the desert, summer daytime temperatures are a bit moderated due to the influence of the cooler offshore winds from the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, although average high temperatures consistently exceed 40 °C (104 °F) during the hottest months of the year. The region receives an average annual rainfall of .

Economy and culture

There are public buses to the cities of Sirte and Sabha. There is also a military airport located between Hun and Waddan, Al Jufra Airbase. Hun is 240 km south of Sirte, 370 km from Misrata and 272 km north of Sabha. The "International Autumn Tourism Festival", is an annual festival usually held at the end of September. It is organized for four days every year from 1996. It is aimed at promoting tourism and culture and organizes concerts and exhibitions.

Notes

External links

Lexicorient - Hun, the migrating town

{{District capitals of Libya Populated places in Jufra District Oases of Libya Italian Libya Baladiyat of Libya

History

Geography

Economy and culture

See also

Notes

External links