TRIPOLITANIA, an Italian colony in North Africa, with an approximate area of 360,00o sq.m., mostly desert. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the west and south by Tunisia and French West and Equatorial Africa, and on the east by Cyrenaica (q.v.). Population (1931) : Europeans 29,749, a large majority of whom were Italian; natives 687,914, mostly Arabs, Berbers and Jews. The thief towns, all on the coast, are Tripoli (q.v.) (c. 91,00o in 1934) and Misurata (c. 43,00o).
The agricultural possibilities, espe cially those of the cultivation of grain on a large scale, are some what uncertain, owing to climatic conditions; while tropical cul tivation (coffee, etc.) would be impossible without costly irriga tion works. Arboriculture, on the other hand, is believed to have a very considerable future : it has been estimated that at least 20 million olive trees could be planted there, and vines, oranges and other fruit trees are also successful. Date palms flourish, barley (for beer), henna, castor oil, esparto grass and tobacco are grown and salt, hides, wool and silk worms are produced. Since 1918, 389,62o ac. of land concessions have been taken up by Italian immigrants : and there would be room, it is thought, for as many as ioo,000 selected Italian farmers and their families. The af forestation of the sand dunes has been begun, with tamarisk, mimosa and eucalyptus. Sponge fisheries (4o tons in 1927) and tunny fisheries (500 tons) are carried on. The Government has built a railway along the coast westward from Tripoli to Zuara (75 m.) and begun a line eastwards to Horns, which runs as far as Tagiura (13 m.). Another railway (31 m.) runs inland from Tripoli to El 'Azizia, and is to be continued to Ghariiani and the Jebel. Motor roads run from Bu-Chemmex on the Tunisian frontier, through Zuara and Tripoli, to Horns, Misurata and Sirte, and southwards as far as Misda and Bu Njem, forming the first portion of the two caravan routes to Murzuk, by Tachertiba (where the route to Ghat, and thence to Kano, branches off), and by Sokna and Zuila (where the route to Kufra diverges). An other route runs from Tripoli to Ghadames and thence to Ghat. Revenue is largely derived from import duties, which give pref erence to Italian products. The value of imports in 1922 was L985,000, while that of exports was only £145,000. In 1926 the value of imports was L2,112,000 and of exports £323,000. The colony has been a considerable burden to the Italian Treasury, largely through military expenditure. The military establishment
in 1926-27 was some 17,000 men, of whom 4,800 were Italians. Tripoli comprises four distinct regions—Tripoli proper, the Aujila oases, Fezzan (q.v.) and the oases of Ghadames and Ghat—which with the intervening sandy and stony wastes occupy the space between Tunisia and Cyrenaica.
For some distance east of Tunisia the seaboard is low and sandy with various oases (Zauia, Zanzur, the oasis of Tripoli itself, etc.), and is often regarded as a part of the Sahara, which, however, begins only some 8o m. farther south, beyond the Jebels Nefusi, Yefren and Gharian. The "Jebel." as this system is locally called, terminates eastwards in the Tarhona heights of the Horns (Khoms) coast district, has a mean altitude of about 2,000 ft. and culminates in the Takut (Tekuk) volcano (2,800 ft.) nearly due south of the capital. It is not a true mountain range, but rather the steep scarp of the Saharan plateau, which encloses southwards the Jefara coast plains, and probably represents the original coast-line. The Gharian section is scored in places by the beds of intermittent coast streams, and on its lower slopes is clothed with a rich sub-tropical vegetation. Gharian, some 65 m. south from Tripoli by motor, and 2,350 ft. above sea level, is the seat of the commandant of the southern territory.
South of these escarpments, the vast Hammada el-Homra, the "Red Hammada," an interminable stony table-land covering some 40,00o sq.m. occupies the whole space between Tripoli proper and the Fezzan depression. The now uninhabited and waterless Ham mada formerly drained through several large rivers, such as the Wadis Targelat (Uani, Kseia), Terrgurt, Sofejin, Zemzem and Bel, north-eastwards to the Gulf of Sidra (Syrtis major). Southwards the table-land is skirted by the Jebel Welad Hassan, the Jebel es Suda, the Jebel Morai-Yeh, and other detached ranges, which have a normal west to east trend in the direction of the Aujila oases, rising a little above the level of the plateau, but falling precipi tously towards Fezzan. The Jebel es-Suda (Black Mountains), most conspicuous of these ranges, with a mean altitude of 2,800 ft., takes its name from the blackened aspect of its limestone and sandstone rocks, which have been subjected to volcanic action, giving them the appearance of basalt. Eastwards this range rami fies into the two crescent-shaped chains of the Haruj el-Aswad and Haruj el-Abiad ("Black" and "White" Haruj) which rise some 70o ft. above the Red Hammada.