Catabathmus Magnus
Coordinates: 31°30′N 25°11′E / 31.500°N 25.183°E Halfaya Pass (Arabic: مَمَرّ حَلْفَيَا translit. Mamarr Ħalfayā, known colloquially as Hellfire Pass) is located in Egypt, near the border with Libya. A 600 feet (180 m) high escarpment extends south eastwards from the Egyptian-Libyan border at the coast at as-Salum (or Saloum, Solum, Sollum), with the scarp slope facing into Egypt. Halfaya Pass is about two miles 2 miles (3.2 km) inland from the Mediterranean and provides a natural route through.
The escarpment is known as Akabah el-Kebir عقبة الكبير (`aqabat al-kabīr) "great ascent". To El-Edrisi it was known as عقبة السلوم (`aqabat as-salūm) "graded ascent", whence the modern name of the gulf and the town of Salum.
In antiquity it was known as Catabathmus Magnus. It was considered as marking the boundary between Africa and Asia in Hellenistic geography. It separated the provinces of Aegyptus and Marmarica.
In World War II, the engineered route up the escarpment had been destroyed and the pass had great strategic importance. The only ways westwards into Libya were to assault the pass or to out-flank it to the south.
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