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the Degree Confluence Project
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Libya : al-Butnān

2.5 km (1.6 miles) SE of Madīnat Bayād, al-Butnān, Libya
Approx. altitude: 136 m (446 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 32°S 156°W

Accuracy: 20 m (65 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: Looking east from site over more debris #3: Looking south from site over yet more debris #4: Looking west from site with rather less detritus #5: Site with GPS #6: Part of the team on the spot! I'm but a shadow. #7: The 'bawwāb' (doorkeeper) of the site

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  32°N 24°E (visit #1)  

#1: Looking north from site over debris towards compound wall

(visited by Stanley Howe, Peter & Rosemary Lee, Donald & Gillian Kelley, Wendy & Ian MacCallum and Milad Ghouma)

24-Apr-2005 -- Continued from 31N 17E.

After visiting the Free-French War Cemetery (32°00'31"N 23°58'11"E) on the road out of Ṭubruq towards Egypt (at the junction with the road south to al-`Adam), I asked our mini-bus driver to go a further c. 2 km towards Egypt until my GPS would read 24 degrees east. This was achieved with the northing reading 32°00'25"N. The ground south of the main road there was open sand with a school building about 100 m away, but was then backed by a 2 m high compound wall beyond which our target Confluence lay!

A recce found an access road to a gate in the wall a further 100 m east. After much banging on the securely padlocked solid steel gate we gained access on foot to the huge compound (several square kilometres), and once inside had an easy short walk southwest to the Confluence where my GPS oscillated about 32°00'00"N 24°00'00"E by a tenth of a second of arc.

Pictures were taken of the GPS on the Confluence, plus the requisite views north, east, south, and west. A group photo of the 'team', plus the site engineer who had given us permission to enter for the express purpose of standing on our target point was then taken. The long shadows indicate the strength of the setting sun at 18:00 hrs on a pleasantly warm evening.

As can be seen, the site was not the most salubrious, being an 'elephant's graveyard' for wheels and other parts of what looked like old construction equipment. Additional pictures were taken of the site 'bawwāb' by the blockading wall.


 All pictures
#1: Looking north from site over debris towards compound wall
#2: Looking east from site over more debris
#3: Looking south from site over yet more debris
#4: Looking west from site with rather less detritus
#5: Site with GPS
#6: Part of the team on the spot! I'm but a shadow.
#7: The 'bawwāb' (doorkeeper) of the site
ALL: All pictures on one page