Timimi, At Timimi ( ar, التميمي) or Tmimi, is a small village in

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 ...

about 75 km east of Derna and 100 km west of

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near ...

. It is on the eastern shores of the Libyan coastline of 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 ...

Geography

Because its underground water is salty, it was always a place of little importance, and its population in 2006 was 4,667. However, its situation improved after the

Charruba–Timimi Road Charruba-Timimi road is an asphalt road in the Cyrenaica region of eastern Libya running from Charruba to Taban, Libya, Taban, Mechili, and Timimi. It's about long and known in Libya as “Et Terigh El Foghiya” (literally "The Upper Road"). The ...

was paved between 1975 and 1985; it is now at the crossroads of the Charruba–Timimi Road and the Derna-Tobruk road.

History

The

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

said that Cyrene was founded in the mid-7th century BC by a group of Greek immigrants from

Thera Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...

. These settlers under Battus first landed along the

Gulf of Bomba The Gulf of Bomba, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya. It lies about 40 miles (64 km) east of Derna, Libya, Derna (or Derne) at 32 degrees 38 minutes North Latitude, 23 degrees 07 minutes East Longitud ...

(now the Gulf of Timimi) and stayed there for years before moving to Cyrene. The settlement at Timimi was known in antiquity as Paliurus ( grc-gre, Παλίουρος, ''Palíouros'') after its nearby river, in turn named after the

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

growing within its marshes. Its name was changed following its conquest by the early Muslim

Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

in AD642. During

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 ...

's African campaign,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

Erwin Rommel and his troops reached Timimi on 3 February 1942, stopping there until 26 May 1942, when Rommel began the

Battle of Gazala The Battle of Gazala (near the village of ) was fought during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942. Axis troops of the ( Erwin Rommel) consisting of German an ...

.Peter Young (ed.), "The History of World War II"', Orbis Publication, 1984, vol.8, pp.751-755, & vol.9, p. 786.

References

{{Darnah Populated places in Derna District