The Jebel Akhdar is a heavily forested, fertile upland area in northeastern Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

. It is located in the modern Shabiyahs or Districts of Derna, Jabal al Akhdar, and Marj.

Geography

The Jebel Akhdar consists of a mountainous plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

 rising to an altitude of 500 m/1,600 ft, cut by several valleys and wadi

Wadi

Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...

s. It lies northeast of Benghazi

Benghazi

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

 and south of Derna and the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

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

. The region is one of the very few forested areas of Libya, in one of the least forested countries on Earth. It is the wettest part of Libya, receiving some 600 millimetres (23.6 in) of precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

 annually. The high rainfall contributes to the area's large forests, and enjoys rich fruit, potato, and cereal agriculture, something of a rarity in the arid country.

The city of Bayda is the capital of Jabal al Akdhar District and one of the region's largest cities.

History

Ancient
The ancient Greek colony of Cyrene

Cyrene, Libya

Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony and then a Roman city in present-day Shahhat, Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar...

 was located in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar, with the ruins remaining.

Liberation
The Libyan leader Omar Mukhtar

Omar Mukhtar

Omar Mukhtar , of the Mnifa, was born in the small village of Janzour, near Tobruk in eastern Barqa in Libya. Beginning in 1912, he organized and, for nearly twenty years, led native resistance to Italian colonization of Libya. The Italians captured and hanged him in 1931...

 used this heavily forested mountainous region to resist the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 military occupation

Military occupation

Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...

 of Libya as Italian colony

History of Libya as Italian Colony

The History of Libya as an Italian colony began in the 1910s and lasted until February 1947, when Italy officially lost all the colonies of the former Italian Empire.-First years:...

 for more than twenty years, where he organized and devised strategies for the Libyan resistance

Resistance movement

A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...

 against Italian Libya

Italian Libya

Italian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...

.

See also

• Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe
  Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe
  The Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion of North Africa. It occupies interior plateaus and mountain ranges of the Maghreb region, lying generally between the coastal Mediterranean woodlands and forests to the north and the Sahara to the...
  
   – lower elevations
• Mediterranean woodlands and forests
  Mediterranean woodlands and forests
  The Mediterranean woodlands and forests is an ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub Biome, in the coastal plains, hills, and mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean in North Africa.-Geography:...
  
  – higher elevations

Photo gallery