158 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Series 4, Volume 64, No. 8 
Figure 1. Elevational map of Libya showing the major features of the country. Yellow circles: major Mediterranean 
cities, blue squares: major oases; triangle: highest point in Libya, Bikku Bitti (2267 m); inverted triangle: lowest point in 
Libya, Sabkhat Guzayyii (-47 m). Major geographic features (mountain ranges, plateaus, sand seas) in bold, italic, capital 
letters. 
ranean climate with a narrow rim of warm Mediterranean climate characterizes a small area around 
Tripoli. Steppe areas surrounding these relatively small zones of Mediterranean climate experience 
a warm semi-arid climate and in Tripolitania a cold desert climate prevails for up to 300 km inland. 
The vast majority of the country, however, including the coastal regions of the Gulf of Sirte, falls 
in the warm desert climate zone. The Jabal al Akhdar can receive up to 600 mm of rain per year, 
whereas the maximum in coastal Tripolitania is about 300 mm. These values decline steeply inland, 
and the average rainfall for the nation as a whole is only 26 mm per annum. The lowest rainfall 
occurs between about 23°N and 28°N from the Egyptian border to about 16°E, roughly coincident 
with the Calanshio Sand Sea. Rainfall is generally concentrated in a short period of the year, usu¬ 
ally October to November on the coast and as late as March or April in the desert. Famously, Al- 
