Astronomers and the simply curious have flocked to Libya, reputedly the best place in the world to view Wednesday’s total eclipse of the sun, as the former pariah state bids for tourist dollars.
The north African desert nation opened its air and sea ports to 7 000 eclipse lovers from 47 countries, including Americans, Britons and French, but excluding Israelis, tourism official Shaban al-Taeb told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Experts from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are also expected, with special procedures in place to allow the solar observers to get their scientific equipment into the country that was for decades off-limits to most sightseeing outsiders.
“Libya has the best conditions for observing the eclipse,” tourism minister Ammar el-Latif said earlier this month.
The eclipse “will be visible for seven minutes around Wao Namus (2 000km south of Tripoli) and four minutes around Battan [on the northern border with Egypt],” he said.
According to NASA, the total eclipse will be visible as it crosses half the Earth, travelling from Brazil through northern Africa and ending up in Mongolia.
A partial eclipse will be visible along a much broader path taking in much of Europe, Africa and central Asia, but the Libyan desert has what the United States space agency calls “the greatest eclipse”.
The Wao Namus area is reserved for “savants” while tourists will be flown and bussed to El-Bordi, close to the Egyptian border.
Tent villages with a capacity for 7 000 people, described as “luxuriously equipped”, have been put up in the desert to accommodate the tourists, event organiser Abdel Razak al-Rushed said.
The cost of the visit will be between €1 000 and €2 000 per person for a maximum stay of four days, including transfers to and from observation points.
The ministry of tourism has warned tour operators against over-charging during the eclipse and has mobilised five state-owned companies to deal with the unprecedented influx of Westerners.
“Libya is not chasing financial gain from this event, but wants to rise to the challenge” and launch its burgeoning tourism industry, a tourism official told AFP.
Hundreds of thousands of special glasses have been handed out to Libyan schoolchildren to observe the eclipse, while state television is carrying repeated warnings not to look at the sun with eye protection.
And the ministry of religious affairs has called for special eclipse prayers in all the country’s mosques. The superstitious fear the disappearance of the sun, and the prayers would be to “chase away the evil that might fall on Libya”.
Despite being home to spectacular ancient sites and unspoiled desert, Libya’s tourist infrastructure is minimal after years of neglect.
But since leader Moamer Khadhafi renounced his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in 2003, Libya has slowly been welcomed back into the international community that is all too aware of its mineral wealth.
Nevertheless, years of isolation continue to handicap the industry, and bureaucratic obstacles make entry, and sometimes even exit, difficult. — AFP