It is the largest underground network of pipes and viaducts in the world. It consists of more than 1300 wells, most more than 500 m deep, and supplies 6,500,000 m³ of freshwater per day from beneath the Sahara Desert to the cities northward, the Benghazi region on the Mediterranean coast, Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirt and elsewhere. These aquifers are made of vast quantities of fresh water trapped in the underlying strata between 38,000 and 14,000 years ago, though some pockets are only 7,000 years old.
Construction on the first phase started in 1984, and cost about $5 billion. The completed project may total $25 billion.
Muammar al-Gaddafi has described it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and presented the project as a gift to the Third World.
Astronomical observatory
The native country of Eratosthenes of Cyrene, born in today's Shahhat, ancient astronomer and chief librarian of the Great Library of Alexandria, will be the seat of North Africa's largest astronomical observatory.
The Libyan National Telescope Project costing nearly 10 million euros, was ordered by Moamer Kadhafi, who has a passionate interest in astronomy.
Built by France's REOSC, the optical department of the SAGEM Group, the robotic telescope will be two metres in diameter and remote-controlled. A possible desertic site at 2200 meters above sea level near Kufra could be chosen.
It will be housed in an air-conditioned building, with a network of four weather stations deployed at a distance of 10 kilometers around it to warn of impending sandstorms that could damage its fragile optics. [17]
