By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 24 March 2014:
Plans to develop tourism in Sebha have been discussed between the head of the Prime Minister’s . . .[restrict]representative office in the town and officials in the local branch of Historic Cities organisation.
“We met on Sunday with the head of the Historic Cities office in the south and discussed the best possible ways to provide protection, upgrading and even increased publicity for historic sites in the region and to attract tourists” Mustafa Kunono, the head of the PM’s Sebha office, told the Libya Herald.
Many historic sites in the South were either largely neglected or turned into makeshift accommodation for the increasing number of illegal migrants, he said.
Clashes in the area have added to the area’s problems.
“It’s very sad that the historic castle in Sebha was hit by a number of missiles recently, which severely damaged to the historic building,” he said, referring to the clashes in January and February first between the Alwad Sulaiman and Tebus then with Qaddafi supporters.
The national army’s Awlad Sulaiman-dominated 6th Brigade had control of Fort Elena castle but used it to fire the Tebus, who fired back. Then, when the clashes mutated into a conflict between the brigade and Qaddafi supporters, the latter started taking missile shots at it.
The castle appears on the Libyan ten dinar note. It was built during the Italian colonial period and was originally as Fortezza Margherita, named after the queen of Italy who also gave her name to a pizza. [/restrict]
