Zella

Zella is an oasis in the Libyan desert, where palm groves rise above irrigated gardens. Its market once served caravans crossing the country between Egypt and the western Maghreb. Merchants returning west stopped here to exchange goods brought from Egypt, while the oasis supplied travellers passing through the dry lands between larger centres. Dates were among its best-known products, and its fields also yielded grain for the people of the oasis.

In the sixteenth century, the growth of Murzuq and a change in the desert route towards Tripoli altered the pattern of trade. Traffic increasingly passed through Jufra, Abu Nujaym and Bani Walid, and Zella's commercial importance declined. Its gardens and palms nevertheless remained a source of food in the surrounding desert.