Murzuk | town, oasis

 town, oasis

Murzuk, Murzuq, Murzug or Merzug (Arabic: مرزق‎) is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya. It lies on the northern edge of the Murzuq Desert, an extremely arid region of ergs or great sand dunes which is part of the greater Sahara Desert.
Murzuk developed around an oasis which served as a stop on the north-south trade route across the Sahara Desert. From the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD, Marzuk was home to the Garamantian Empire, a city state which operated the Trans-Saharan trade routes between the Carthaginians—and later the Roman Empire—and the Sahelian states of West and Central Africa. By 1300, the area was ruled by the Kanem Empire. According to Helmuth Kanter, a Moroccan tribe overran the area in 1310 and established Murzuk as the capital of their sultanate. The fortress, now in ruins, was built around this time. By 1400 the city was ruled by the Bornu Empire, and the legacy of Kanem-Bornu sovereignty is still evident, as some streets have names in the Kanembu and Kanuri languages. In the later half of the 15th century, the area became a tributary of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis.
During the Libyan Civil War, Murzuk was reported on 19 August 2011 as having been captured by forces of the National Transitional Council as part of their Fezzan campaign in the Sahara desert region. On 22 February 2019 it was reported by the Benghazi General Command that Murzuk has been captured by forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar.
In 2013, the first Toubou national festival in Libya was held in Murzuk. The city also has an annual cultural festival, which was postponed in 2014 due to security concerns.In 2013, two new cultural centers were opened in the town and six more were reported to be close to completion.
In 2003, the municipality of Murzuk had 68 educational institutions, 1277 classrooms and 3009 teachers.