Villa Cisneros
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Dakhla الداخلة ⴻⴷⴷⴰⵅⵍⴰ Villa Cisneros Ed-Dakhla |
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|---|---|
 Dakhla
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| Coordinates: 23°43′N 15°57′W / 23.717°N 15.950°W | |
| Territory | Western Sahara |
| Controlled by | Kingdom of Morocco |
| Claimed by |
 Kingdom of Morocco, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
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| Population (2014) | |
| • Total | 70,482 |
| Time zone | GMT+0 |
| • Summer (DST) | GMT+0 (UTC) |
| Website | http://www.dakhla.net/ |
Dakhla (Arabic: الداخلة; Berber: ⴻⴷⴷⴰⵅⵍⴰ, Ed-Daḵla; Spanish: Villa Cisneros, Dajla, Ed-Dakhla) is a city in Western Sahara, a disputed territory currently administered by Morocco. It is the capital of the Moroccan administrative region Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. It has a population of 106,277 and is built on a narrow peninsula of the Atlantic Coast () about 550 km south of Laayoune.
The area has been inhabited by Berbers since ancient times. Oulad Dlim is an Arab tribe of Himyari from Yemen that settled in the Sahara in the twelfth century. Dakhla was expanded by Spanish settlers during the expansion of their empire. The Spanish interest in the desert coast of Western Africa's Sahara arose as the result of fishing carried out from the nearby Canary Islands by Spanish fishers and as a result of the Barbary pirates menace.
Spanish fishers were seal fur traders and hunters, fishers and whalers along the Saharan coast from Dakhla to Cabo Blanco from 1500 to the present, engaging in whaling for Humpback whales and their calves, mostly around Cape Verde, and the Guinea gulf in Annobon, São Tomé and Príncipe islands through 1940. These fishing activities had a negative impact on wildlife, causing the disappearance or endangering of many species, particularly marine mammals and birds.
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