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Dakhla (Dajla), or ad-Dakhla (Arabic: الداخلة)
(formerly Villa Cisneros, which is its current name in Spanish), is a city
in the Western Sahara with about 85,000 inhabitants. It is about 550 km
south of El Aaiún on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast. It is the
capital of what the Moroccan government called the Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira
region, but for the POLISARIO is part of the Occupied Territories. 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 the 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, both of 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 Francoist dictatorship also built here one of the three paved
airports in Western Sahara at Dakhla Airport. Between 1975 and 1979, Dakhla
was the province capital of the Mauritanian province of Tiris al-Gharbiyya,
consisting of its annexed portion of Western Sahara. Dakhla Airport is used
as public airport and by the Royal Air Maroc. The 3 km. long runway can
receive a Boeing 737 or smaller planes. The passenger terminal covers 670 m²
and is capable to handle up to 55.000 passenger/year. The main economic
activity of the city is fishing. In recent years the town has become a
centre for aquatic sports, such as kitesurfing, windsurfing and surf
casting. |
