Map of Ajdabiya
Ajdabiya is a first-level division of Libya. Its largest mapped city is Ajdabiya, with about 143,833 people in the metropolitan area. The interactive map below is centred on Ajdabiya, and the tables list its 4 mapped cities along with the ports nearest to them.
- Cities Mapped
- 4
- Largest City
- Ajdabiya
- Country
- Libya
Interactive Map of Ajdabiya
About Ajdabiya
Ajdabiya ( AHJ-də-BEE-ə; Arabic: أجدابيا, romanized: Aǧdābiyā) is a town in and capital of the Al Wahat District in northeastern Libya. It is some 150 kilometres (93 mi) south of Benghazi. From 2001 to 2007 it was part of and capital of the Ajdabiya District. The town is divided into three Basic People's Congresses: North Ajdabiya, West Ajdabiya and East Ajdabiya.
During the Libyan Civil War, the city changed hands several times between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces, with the anti-Gaddafi forces finally securing the town in April 2011. As many civilians had fled the fighting, one March 2011 report described the city as a "ghost town."
Later, during the Second Libyan Civil War, the city was seized by the Ajdabiya Revolutionaries Shura Council until it was taken over by the Libyan National Army on 21 February 2016.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Ajdabiya (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Ajdabiya in Depth
History
Ajdabiya has been identified as the site of the Roman city of Corniclanum, which is shown on the Peutinger Table of the Roman road network in the fourth or fifth centuries AD. It gained its importance for two reasons: it possessed drinkable water, which made it a useful staging post in an arid region, and it stood on the intersection of two important trade routes, the coastal route along the North African littoral and the desert caravan route from the oases of Jalu and al-Ujlah. The town passed to the Byzantine Empire following the fall of Rome but gained new importance under the rule of the Fatimid Caliphate. After sacking the town in 912, the Fatimids redeveloped Ajdabiya and built a new mosque and palace complex, the ruins of which can still be seen.
Geography
Ajdabiya is situated in central northern Libya near the Mediterranean Sea coast at the eastern end of the Gulf of Sidra. It is located on an arid plain about 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) from the sea, 850 kilometres (530 mi) from the Libyan capital of Tripoli and 150 kilometres (93 mi) from Libya's second largest city, Benghazi. The city is the site of an important crossroads between the coastal road from Tripoli to Benghazi and inland routes south to the oasis at Jalu and east to Tobruk and the border with Egypt. Ajdabiya lies close to the Sabkhat Ghuzayyil, a large dry region below sea level.
Ajdabiya has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh).
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Ajdabiya (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Ajdabiya: Key Facts
| Population | 416,000 (2020) |
|---|
Facts from Wikidata Q202991 (CC0).
History of Ajdabiya: Empires and States
The atlas records 26 polities whose mapped territory included part of Ajdabiya, from Achaemenid Empire in 500 BCE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here |
|---|---|
| Achaemenid Empire | 500–332 BCE |
| Achaemenid Persian Empire | 500–332 BCE |
| Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt | 383–338 BCE |
| Cyrenaica | 331–92 BCE |
| Ptolemaic Kingdom | 291–31 BCE |
| Roman Republic | 91–32 BCE |
| The Roman Empire | 30 BCE – 476 CE |
| Eastern Roman Empire | 395–632 CE |
| The Byzantine Empire | 395–665 CE |
| Rashidun Caliphate | 647–655 CE |
| The Umayyad Caliphate | 666–750 CE |
| The Abbasid Caliphate | 751–959 CE |
| Tulunids | 875–910 CE |
| Fatimid Caliphate | 960–1168 CE |
| Zengid dynasty | 1169–1176 CE |
| Ayyubid Sultanate | 1177–1249 CE |
| Mamluk Sultanate | 1250–1518 CE |
| The Ottoman Empire | 1519–1712 CE |
| Karamanli Dynasty | 1713–1839 CE |
| Ottoman Tripolitania | 1840–1911 CE |
| Italian Africa | 1912–1943 CE |
| British Africa | 1944–1952 CE |
| The British Empire | 1944–1952 CE |
| Kingdom of Libya | 1953–1968 CE |
| Libyan Arab Republic | 1969–2013 CE |
| State of Libya | 2014–2024 CE |
Historical Maps of Ajdabiya
Ajdabiya on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Largest Cities in Ajdabiya
4 cities mapped. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajdabiya | 143,833 | Ajdabiya | Admin-1 capital |
| 2 | Awjilah | 6,610 | Ajdabiya | Populated place |
| 3 | Maradah | 2,500 | Ajdabiya | Populated place |
| 4 | El Agheila | 100 | Ajdabiya | Populated place |
Ports in Ajdabiya
4 ports mapped. Ranked by approach channel depth, the figure that limits which ships can call. Harbours link to their write-up on the page of the sea or coast they lie on. Assigned by the nearest mapped city, so features near the boundary may belong to a neighbouring division.
| # | Name | Channel Depth | Class | Sea | Max Vessel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ras Lanuf | 23.8 m | Very Small | Eastern Mediterranean | medium vessels |
| 2 | Ez Zueitina | 16.5 m | Very Small | Eastern Mediterranean | large vessels |
| 3 | As Sidr | 5.5 m | Very Small | Eastern Mediterranean | large vessels |
| 4 | al Burayqah | — | Small | Eastern Mediterranean | medium vessels |
Ajdabiya: Quick Answers
- Where is Ajdabiya?
- Ajdabiya is a first-level division of Libya, in Africa. Its mapped cities centre on 29.8422° N, 19.9809° E.
- What is the largest city in Ajdabiya?
- Ajdabiya is the largest city mapped in Ajdabiya, with a metropolitan population of about 143,833.
- How many cities are in Ajdabiya?
- YearMaps maps 4 cities and towns in Ajdabiya, with a combined metropolitan population of about 153,043. This counts mapped settlements, not every municipality.