| Dakhla, Western Sahara |
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Information AboutDakhla, Western Sahara |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DAKHLA, WESTERN SAHARA | |
| cities and towns in morocco | |
| cities in western sahara | |
| settlements established in 1502 | |
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Dakhla, or '''ad-Dakhla''' () (formerly '''Villa Cisneros'''), is a city in the Moroccan administred Western Sahara with about 67,468 inhabitants1. It is about 550 km south of El Aaiún on the Atlantic Coast , located in a narrow peninsula. It is the capital of the Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira region. Dakhla was founded as ''Villa Cisneros'' in 1502 by Spanish settlers during The Expansion Of Their Empire . During the Colonial Period , the Spanish authorities made Dakhla capital of the province of Río De Oro , one of the two regions of the Spanish Sahara . They built a military fortress and a modern Catholic church, which remain points of interest for visitors to the city. A prison camp also existed here during the Spanish Civil War , at which writers such as Pedro García Cabrera were imprisoned. During the 1960s, the n province of Tiris Al-Gharbiyya , consisting of its annexed portion of Western Sahara. The main economic activity of the city is fishing. In the area south of Tindouf , Algeria , there is a Sahrawi Refugee Camp named after Dakhla. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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