The east-facing centre and (to background) south of the town which is where the coast assumes its overall north direction as throughout the rest of Egypt, though having many headlands much further east. The desert hills are the Akabah el-Kebir.
Sallum (Arabic: السلوم, romanized: as-SallūmEgyptian Arabic pronunciation:[essælˈluːm]ⓘ various transliterations include El Salloum, As Sallum or Sollum) is a harbourside village or town in Egypt. It is along the Egypt/Libyan short north–south aligned coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the far northwest corner of Egypt. It is, geodesically, 8 km (5 mi) east of the border with Libya, and 128 km (80 mi) from the notable port of Tobruk, Libya.
Sallum is mainly a Bedouin community of the families of merchants, fishermen and herdsmen. It has little tourist activity and few organized historical curiosities. It is a key trading center for the local Bedouin community. It has a World War II Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery and is 7.5 km (4.7 mi) north of Halfaya Pass.
Sallum is on its own pass which, improved since World War II, has become the main pass ascending the related ridge, which obstructs east–west trade. The ridge extends away from its northern part, east-facing sea cliffs, south by 55 km (34 mi), there turning increasingly east. This escarpment is the ʿAqaba al-Kabīr, once called the ʿAqaba as-Sallūm, such as in the 12th century – a descriptor meaning graded (evened out) ascent, then making the name of the town. There are no other roadworthy passes nearby.
Sallum was a small Roman port. Some Roman wells remain locally. Sometimes called Baranis, the port should not be confused with the medieval-noted branch of the Berbers, the al-Baranis.
At its southern end, scattered homes mark out the end of the northern coast of Egypt. Amenities include a post office and a National Bank of Egypt branch.
History
Wider context, broad reach of the Ottoman Empire such as in 1795, highlighting the Eyalet of Tripolitania
Early settlement
Local people are mentioned in some Roman accounts of Catabathmus Maior/Magnus (referring to the local, obstructive ridge to east–west land trade, ʿAqaba as-Sallūm or more commonly today ʿAqaba al-Kabīr, literally 'the great pass.' It may have been Plynos Limen and Tetrapyrgia mentioned in less context-clear early courses.
Sallum was the origin for many eastward migrations to Egypt Eyalet and Bilad al-Sham. During the 19th century, one family migrated first to Tafilah in southern Jordan, and thence to the region of Jaffa. They settled in ancient village of Mulabbis, and lived there for several generations until the establishment of Petah Tikva, the first Zionist colony, in 1878.[1][2]
Sovereignty and battles
Sallum was part of the Eyalet then Vilayet of Tripolitania, 1551–1911, the year before its fall mainly to Italy. That year, during the Italo-Turkish War, an Anglo-Egyptian force took over it, relieving its garrison, to prevent it from falling into Italian hands. When the border between Italian Libya and Egypt was settled by treaty in 1925, Sallum was placed on the Egyptian side.[3]
^Anna Baldinetti, The Origins of the Libyan Nation: Colonial Legacy, Exile and the Emergence of a New Nation-State (Routledge, 2010), p. 2.
^John Slight (2014), "British Understandings of the Sanussiyya Sufi Order’s Jihad against Egypt, 1915–17", The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 103(2) pp. 233–242.
^"Valoria La Buena annular eclipse expedition" (report), Solar Physics Group, Astrophysics Lab, University of Rome, January 10, 2007, webpage (mostly Italian): ICRA-solar: mentions Sidi Barrani observation area.
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