Dakhla, Western Sahara
Dakhla is a city in Western Sahara, a disputed territory administered by Morocco. It is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab, it has a population of 106,277 and is built on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast, the Río de Oro Peninsula, about 550 km south of Laayoune. The area has been inhabited by Berbers since ancient times. Oulad Dlim is an Arab tribe of Himyari from Yemen. Dakhla was expanded by Spanish settlers during the expansion of their empire; the Spanish interest in the desert coast of Western Africa's Sahara arose as the result of fishing carried out from the nearby Canary Islands by Spanish fishers and as a result of the Barbary pirates menace. Spanish fishers were seal fur traders and hunters and whalers along the Saharan coast from Dakhla to Cabo Blanco from 1500 to the present, engaging in whaling for Humpback whales and their calves around Cape Verde, the Guinea gulf in Annobon, São Tomé and Príncipe islands through 1940; these fishing activities had a negative impact on wildlife, causing the disappearance or endangering of many species marine mammals and birds.
The Spaniards established whaling stations with trading. In 1881, a dock was anchored off the coast of the Río de Oro Peninsula to support the work of the Canarian fishing fleet. However, it was not until 1884 that Spain formally founded the watering place as Villa Cisneros, in the settlement dated in 1502 by Papal bull, it was included in the enclaves conceded to the Spanish to the east of the Azores islands. In 1884, the settlement was promoted by the Spanish Society of Africanists and funded by the government of Canovas del Castillo; the Spanish military, along with the Spanish Arabist Emilio Bonelli, claimed the coast between Cape Bojador and Cabo Blanco for Spain, founding three settlements on the Saharan coast: one in Villa Cisneros, named in honour of Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, the Spanish prelate, the Grand Inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition. Bonelli got the native inhabitants of the peninsula de Río de Oro to sign an agreement which placed them under the'protection' of the Kingdom of Spain.
Due to the presence of the three new settlements, in December that year the Spanish Government informed the main colonial powers assembled at the Berlin Conference that the Spanish Crown was in possession of the territory lying between Cape Bojador and Cape Blanco. During the colonial period, Spanish authorities made Dakhla the capital of the province of Río de Oro, one of the two regions of what was known as Spanish Sahara, they built a modern Catholic church. A prison camp existed at the fort during the Spanish Civil War, at which writers such as Pedro García Cabrera were imprisoned. During the 1960s, the Francoist State built Dakhla Airport, one of the three paved airports in Western Sahara, it was from Dakhla known as Villa Cisneros, that on January 12, 1976, General Gomez de Salazar became the last Spanish soldier to depart what until that moment had been the colony of the Spanish Sahara. Between 1975 and 1979, Dakhla was the provincial capital of the Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya, as Mauritania annexed the southern portion of Western Sahara.
Dakhla Airport is used by Royal Air Maroc. The 3 km. long runway can accommodate a Boeing 737 or smaller aircraft. The passenger terminal is capable of handling up to 55,000 passenger/year. Dakhla was occupied by Spain from the late 19th century until 1975, when power was relinquished to a joint administration between Morocco and Mauritania. There was a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire in 1991, but as as 2006, the majority of UN member states have refused to recognise Moroccan sovereignty in the area; the main economic activity of the city is tourism. In recent years the town has become a centre for aquatic sports, such as kitesurfing and surf casting and is known as a centre for watersports. Golfo de Cintra and the World Heritage of the Banc d'Arguin National Park are located in the south. US firm Kosmos Energy and its UK counterpart Cairn Energy began searching for oil in Western Sahara in early 2015. Oyster farming by hand is a traditional practice in Dakhla. Oysters are first sold to people and businesses in Dakhla to restaurants in cities like Marrakech or Casablanca, any left are sold to Europe.
In April 2015, VICE reported that oysters had begun to be exported to high-end European restaurants. Dakhla has a mild tropical desert climate according to the Köppen climate classification, meaning the mean temperature in every month is at least 18.0 °C. Dakhla receives an average 33 millimetres of precipitation per year; the temperature averages around 17.4 °C during January, Dakhla's coldest month and around 23.0 °C during September, its warmest month. The temperature seems to be moderated by the Canary Current. Like most areas in Western Sahara and vicinity areas are poor in vegetation and are covered by the Sahara Desert. Unlike on land however, sea waters are or had been rich in sea life due to the productive Current System of Canary flowing offshore and the
Conveyor belt
A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system. A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys, with an endless loop of carrying medium—the conveyor belt—that rotates about them. One or both of the pulleys are powered, moving the material on the belt forward; the powered pulley is called the drive pulley. There are two main industrial classes of belt conveyors. Conveyors are durable and reliable components used in automated distribution and warehousing, as well as manufacturing and production facilities. In combination with computer-controlled pallet handling equipment this allows for more efficient retail and manufacturing distribution, it is considered a labor saving system that allows large volumes to move through a process, allowing companies to ship or receive higher volumes with smaller storage space and with less labor expense. Rubber conveyor belts are used to convey items with irregular bottom surfaces, small items that would fall in between rollers, or bags of product that would sag between rollers.
Belt conveyors are fairly similar in construction consisting of a metal frame with rollers at either end of a flat metal bed. The belt is looped around each of the rollers and when one of the rollers is powered the belting slides across the solid metal frame bed, moving the product. In heavy use applications the beds which the belting is pulled over are replaced with rollers; the rollers allow weight to be conveyed as they reduce the amount of friction generated from the heavier loading on the belting. Belt conveyors can now be manufactured with curved sections which use tapered rollers and curved belting to convey products around a corner; these conveyor systems are used in postal sorting offices and airport baggage handling systems. A sandwich belt conveyor uses two conveyor belts, face-to-face, to contain the item being carried, making steep incline and vertical-lift runs achievable. Belt conveyors are the most used powered conveyors because they are the most versatile and the least expensive.
Product is conveyed directly on the belt so both regular and irregular shaped objects, large or small and heavy, can be transported successfully. These conveyors should use only the highest quality premium belting products, which reduces belt stretch and results in less maintenance for tension adjustments. Belt conveyors can be used to transport product in a straight line or through changes in elevation or direction. In certain applications they can be used for static accumulation or cartons. Primitive conveyor belts were used since the 19th century. In 1892, Thomas Robins began a series of inventions which led to the development of a conveyor belt used for carrying coal and other products. In 1901, Sandvik started the production of steel conveyor belts. In 1905 Richard Sutcliffe invented the first conveyor belts for use in coal mines which revolutionized the mining industry. In 1913, Henry Ford introduced conveyor-belt assembly lines at Ford Motor Company's Highland Park, Michigan factory. In 1972, the French society REI created in New Caledonia the longest straight-belt conveyor in the world, at a length of 13.8 km.
Hyacynthe Marcel Bocchetti was the concept designer. In 1957, the B. F. Goodrich Company patented a Möbius strip conveyor belt, that it went on to produce as the "Turnover Conveyor Belt System". Incorporating a half-twist, it had the advantage over conventional belts of a longer life because it could expose all of its surface area to wear and tear; such Möbius strip belts are no longer manufactured because untwisted modern belts can be made more durable by constructing them from several layers of different materials. In 1970, Intralox, a Louisiana-based company, registered the first patent for all plastic, modular belting; the belt consists of one or more layers of material. It is common for belts to have three layers: a carcass and a bottom cover; the purpose of the carcass is to provide linear shape. The carcass is a woven or metal fabric having a warp & weft; the warp refers to longitudinal cords whose characteristics of resistance and elasticity define the running properties of the belt. The weft represents the whole set of transversal cables allowing to the belt specific resistance against cuts and impacts and at the same time high flexibility.
The most common carcass materials are steel, nylon and aramid. The covers are various rubber or plastic compounds specified by use of the belt. Steel conveyor belts are used. For example, the highest strength class conveyor belt installed is made of steel cords; this conveyor belt has a strength class of 10.000 N/mm and it operates at Chuquicamata mine, in Chile. Polyester and cotton are popular with low strength classes. Aramid is used in the range 630 - 3500 N/mm; the advantages of using aramid are enhanced lifetimes and improved productivity. As an example, a 2250 N/mm, 3400 m long underground belt installed at Baodian Coal Mine, part of in Yanzhou Coal Mining Company, was reported to provide energy savings of >15%. Today there are different types of conveyor belts that have been created for conveying different kinds of
Smara
Smara is a city in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara, with a population of 57,035 recorded in the 2014 Moroccan census. It is served by Smara bus station; the largest city in its province, Smara was founded in the Saguia el-Hamra as an oasis for travellers in 1869. In the center of the city the remains of a stone fortress can be found, the Zawiy Maalainin, which enclosed a mosque; the Maalainin lived there from 1830 until 1912. It was made a capital and religious center in 1902 by shaykh Ma al-'Aynayn, in what was Spanish Sahara; the location of the city was intended to ensure its becoming a caravan trade hub in the sparsely populated Sahara desert. The enlargement of Smara was carried out by local Sahrawis as well as craftsmen sent by the sultan Hassan I. In 1902, shaykh Ma declared it his holy capital. Among other things, he created an important Islamic library, the town became a center of religious learning. In 1904 the shaykh declared himself an imam and called for holy war against French colonialism, pressing into the Sahara at this time.
During the campaign against Ma al-'Aynayn, Smara was sacked completely in 1913 by the French Army, its library destroyed. The town was handed over to the Spanish. In 1934 the town was once again destroyed after Sahrawi rebellions against the Spanish occupation. Reaching Ma el Ainain's mysterious Smara was the goal of the brothers Vieuchange, early 20th-century French writers and romantics. Michel Vieuchange's painful journey through the rebel-held Sahrawi lands in 1930 disguised as a Berber tribeswoman reaching Smara on 1 November 1930, the dysentery that led to his death on the return, is documented in his journals. Comprising seven notebooks and more than 200 photographs, the account was published posthumously in 1932 as Smara: The Forbidden City by his brother Jean and became a bestseller. In 1975, Morocco took control of Saguia Elhamra, according to the Madrid Accords; the Moroccan army took the city from the Polisario Front in 1976. Near Tindouf, there still exists a Sahrawi refugee camp named after Smara.
It is one of the four camps of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic administration in Algeria. The town is controlled by the Moroccan authorities, as part of what the government terms its Southern Provinces, enclosed by a section of the Moroccan Wall. CTM, Supratours and Satas companies have daily travels from Smara to Agadir. Supratours have daily travel from Smara to Laayoune. Notes Sources Entry in Lexicorient ad for "Smara: The Forbidden City" by Jean and Michel Vieuchange Satellite view in Google Maps
Road surface
A road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past, gravel road surfaces and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have been replaced by asphalt or concrete laid on a compacted base course. Road surfaces are marked to guide traffic. Today, permeable paving methods are beginning to be used for low-impact walkways. Pavements are crucial to countries such as US and Canada, which depend on road transportation. Therefore, research projects such as Long-Term Pavement Performance are launched to optimize the life-cycle of different road surfaces. Asphalt, sometimes called flexible pavement due to the nature in which it distributes loads, has been used since the 1920s; the viscous nature of the bitumen binder allows asphalt concrete to sustain significant plastic deformation, although fatigue from repeated loading over time is the most common failure mechanism. Most asphalt surfaces are laid on a gravel base, at least as thick as the asphalt layer, although some'full depth' asphalt surfaces are laid directly on the native subgrade.
In areas with soft or expansive subgrades such as clay or peat, thick gravel bases or stabilization of the subgrade with Portland cement or lime may be required. Polypropylene and polyester geosynthetics have been used for this purpose and in some northern countries, a layer of polystyrene boards have been used to delay and minimize frost penetration into the subgrade. Depending on the temperature at which it is applied, asphalt is categorized as hot mix, warm mix, or cold mix. Hot mix asphalt is applied at temperatures over 300 °F with a free floating screed. Warm mix asphalt is applied at temperatures of 200–250 °F, resulting in reduced energy usage and emissions of volatile organic compounds. Cold mix asphalt is used on lower-volume rural roads, where hot mix asphalt would cool too much on the long trip from the asphalt plant to the construction site. An asphalt concrete surface will be constructed for high-volume primary highways having an average annual daily traffic load greater than 1200 vehicles per day.
Advantages of asphalt roadways include low noise low cost compared with other paving methods, perceived ease of repair. Disadvantages include less durability than other paving methods, less tensile strength than concrete, the tendency to become slick and soft in hot weather and a certain amount of hydrocarbon pollution to soil and groundwater or waterways. In the mid-1960s, rubberized asphalt was used for the first time, mixing crumb rubber from used tires with asphalt. While a potential use for tires that would otherwise fill landfills and present a fire hazard, rubberized asphalt has shown greater incidence of wear in freeze-thaw cycles in temperate zones due to non-homogeneous expansion and contraction with non-rubber components; the application of rubberized asphalt is more temperature-sensitive, in many locations can only be applied at certain times of the year. Study results of the long-term acoustic benefits of rubberized asphalt are inconclusive. Initial application of rubberized asphalt may provide 3–5 decibels reduction in tire-pavement source noise emissions.
Compared to traditional passive attenuating measures, rubberized asphalt provides shorter-lasting and lesser acoustic benefits at much greater expense. Concrete surfaces are created using a concrete mix of Portland cement, coarse aggregate and water. In all modern mixes there will be various admixtures added to increase workability, reduce the required amount of water, mitigate harmful chemical reactions and for other beneficial purposes. In many cases there will be Portland cement substitutes added, such as fly ash; this can improve its physical properties. The material is applied in a freshly mixed slurry, worked mechanically to compact the interior and force some of the cement slurry to the surface to produce a smoother, denser surface free from honeycombing; the water allows the mix to combine molecularly in a chemical reaction called hydration. Concrete surfaces have been refined into three common types: jointed plain, jointed reinforced and continuously reinforced; the one item that distinguishes each type is the jointing system used to control crack development.
One of the major advantages of concrete pavements is they are stronger and more durable than asphalt roadways. They can be grooved to provide a durable skid-resistant surface. A notable disadvantage is that they can have a higher initial cost, can be more time-consuming to construct; this cost can be offset through the long life cycle of the pavement. Concrete pavement can be maintained over time utilizing a series of methods known as concrete pavement restoration which include diamond grinding, dowel bar retrofits and crack sealing, cross-stitching, etc. Diamond grinding is useful in reducing noise and restoring skid resistance in older concrete pavement; the first street in the United States to be paved with concrete was Court Avenue in Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1893. The first mile of concrete pavement in the United States was on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan in 1909. Following these pioneering uses, the Lincoln Highway Association, established in October 1913 to oversee the creation of one of the United States' earliest east-west transcontinental
Mauritania Railway
The Mauritania Railway is the national railway of Mauritania. Opened in 1963, it consists of a single, 704-kilometre railway line linking the iron mining centre of Zouerate with the port of Nouadhibou, via Fderik and Choum; the state agency Société Nationale Minière controls the railway line. Since the closure of the Choum Tunnel, a 5 km section of the railway cuts through the Polisario Front-controlled part of the Western Sahara. Trains on the railway are up to 2.5 kilometres in length, making them among the longest and heaviest in the world. They consist of 3 or 4 diesel-electric EMD locomotives, 200 to 210 cars each carrying up to 84 tons of iron ore, 2-3 service cars; the total traffic averages 16.6 million tons per year. Passengers are occasionally transported by train. Passenger cars are sometimes attached to freight trains, but more passengers ride atop the ore hopper cars freely. Passengers include locals and some tourists. Conditions for these passengers are harsh with daytime temperatures exceeding 40°C and death from falls being common.
In January 2019, the railway resumed tourism after a ten year hiatus. One of the stops on the tourist route is an iron mine; the tourist route is operated by a locomotive carrying two passenger carriages. In October 2010, SNIM ordered six EMD SD-70ACS locomotives, with special modifications for operating in high temperatures. In 2014, the mining company Glencore paid $1 billion for 18 years of access to SNIM's rail and port infrastructure, which would be connected to branch lines to new iron mines at Askaf and Guelb El Aouj; the deal would have saved the company the cost of constructing their own facilities. However, Glencore backed out of the project just one year after the price of iron ore tumbled nearly 40%. Economy of Mauritania History of rail transport in Mauritania Transport in Mauritania Railway stations in Mauritania Enclave and exclave - crossborder shortcut to avoid tunnel Robinson, Neil. World Rail Atlas and Historical Summary. Volume 7: North and Central Africa. Barnsley, UK: World Rail Atlas Ltd.
ISBN 978-954-92184-3-5. SNIM train site Train images at Adventures in Mauritania Map of railway route This Sahara Railway Is One of the Most Extreme in the World Hot and dangerous: A train ride in Mauritania The iron trains of Mauritania Train to nowhere in Mauritania Atop a long train in Africa, heading for change The Mauritania Railway: Backbone of the Sahara, a short documentary film
The World Factbook
The World Factbook known as the CIA World Factbook, is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available from the Government Printing Office. Other companies—such as Skyhorse Publishing—also print a paper edition; the Factbook is available in the form of a website, updated every week. It is available for download for use off-line, it provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, communications, government and military of each of 267 international entities including U. S.-recognized countries and other areas in the world. The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U. S. government officials, its style, format and content are designed to meet their requirements. However, it is used as a resource for academic research papers and news articles; as a work of the U. S. government, it is in the public domain in the United States. In researching the Factbook, the CIA uses the sources listed below.
Other public and private sources are consulted. Antarctic Information Program Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center Bureau of the Census Bureau of Labor Statistics Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs Defense Intelligence Agency Department of Energy Department of State Fish and Wildlife Service Maritime Administration National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Naval Facilities Engineering Command Office of Insular Affairs Office of Naval Intelligence Oil & Gas Journal United States Board on Geographic Names United States Transportation Command Because the Factbook is in the public domain, people are free under United States law to redistribute it or parts of it in any way that they like, without permission of the CIA. However, the CIA requests. Copying the official seal of the CIA without permission is prohibited by U. S. federal law—specifically, the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949. Before November 2001 The World Factbook website was updated yearly. Information available as of January 1 of the current year is used in preparing the Factbook.
The first, edition of Factbook was published in August 1962, the first unclassified version in June 1971. The World Factbook was first available to the public in print in 1975. In 2008 the CIA discontinued printing the Factbook themselves, instead turning printing responsibilities over to the Government Printing Office; this happened due to a CIA decision to "focus Factbook resources" on the online edition. The Factbook has been on the World Wide Web since October 1994; the web version receives an average of 6 million visits per month. The official printed version is sold by the Government Printing Office and National Technical Information Service. In past years, the Factbook was available on CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk. Many Internet sites use information and images from the CIA World Factbook. Several publishers, including Grand River Books, Potomac Books, Skyhorse Publishing have re-published the Factbook in recent years; as of July 2011, The World Factbook comprises 267 entities, which can be divided into the following categories: Independent countries The CIA defines these as people "politically organized into a sovereign state with a definite territory."
In this category, there are 195 entities. Others Places set apart from the list of independent countries. There are two: Taiwan and the European Union. Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty Places affiliated with another country, they may be subcategorized by affiliated country: Australia: six entities China: two entities Denmark: two entities France: eight entities Netherlands: three entities New Zealand: three entities Norway: three entities United Kingdom: seventeen entities United States: fourteen entitiesMiscellaneous Antarctica and places in dispute. There are six such entities. Other entities The World and the oceans. There are the World. Areas not covered Specific regions within a country or areas in dispute among countries, such as Kashmir, are not covered, but other areas of the world whose status is disputed, such as the Spratly Islands, have entries. Subnational areas of countries are not included in the Factbook. Instead, users looking for information about subnational areas are referred to "a comprehensive encyclopedia" for their reference needs.
This criterion was invoked in the 2007 and 2011 editions with the decision to drop the entries for French Guiana, Martinique and Reunion. They were dropped because besides being overseas departments, they were now overseas regions, an integral part of France. Kashmir Maps depicting Kashmir have the Indo-Pakistani border drawn at the Line of Control, but the region of Kashmir administered by China drawn in hash marks. Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, which the U. S. considers part of the Republic of Cyprus, is not given a separate entry because "territorial occupations/annexations not recognized by the United States Government are not shown on U. S. Government maps."Taiwan/Republic of China The name
