Лежа: Албания қаласының тарихы мен географиясы

City in Albania
the city in Albania

Lezhë (, ) is a city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Lezhë County and Lezhë Municipality. It is one of Albania's continuously inhabited cities, with roughly 2,400 years of recorded history. One of the main strongholds of the Labeatai, the earliest of the fortification walls of Lezhë are of typical Illyrian construction and are dated to the late 4th century BC. Lezhë was one of the main centres of the Illyrian kingdom. During the conflicts with Macedon, it was captured by Philip V becoming the Macedonian outlet to the Adriatic Sea. The city was later recovered by the Illyrians. It was subjected to Rome after the Roman Illyrian wars and the fall of Gentius' realm. Lezhë was the site of the League of Lezhë where Skanderbeg united the Albanian lords in the fight against the Ottoman Empire.

Today Lezhë is a growing city. Its proximity to the port of Shëngjin as well as its location on the national road between the Montenegrin border to the North and Tirana to the South makes it an attractive location for industry and business.

Lezhë Municipality lies within Lezhë County as part of the Northern Region of Albania and consists of the adjacent administrative units of Balldren, Blinisht, Dajç, Kallmet, Kolsh, Shëngjin, Shënkoll, Ungrej, Zejmen with Lezhë constituting the municipal seat. The municipality spans between the Plain of Zadrima in the north, the Pukë Mirditë Highlands in the east, the mouth of the Mat River in the south and the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast in the west. It covers 509.1 km2.

As of the Köppen climate classification, Lezhë falls under the periphery of the hot summer Mediterranean climate (Csa) zone with an average annual temperature of .

There are urban buses throughout the city and international and national buses. Lezhe has a train station not far from the center. The line starts in Durrës and ends in Shkodër. It is functional but not frequently. The main highway in Lezhe is SH 1, connecting it with Shkodër to the north and the Durrës Kukës Highway (A1, intersection at Milot) to the south. The SH32 connects Lezhe with Shëngjin on the coast.

The population of the municipality of Lezhë at the 2011 census was 65,633,efn|name=fn1|The population of the municipality results from the sum of the administrative units in the former as of the 2011 Albanian census.

The association football club is KS Besëlidhja Lezhë. Although primarily concerned with football and basketball, KS Besëlidhja also participates in sports such as wrestling and beach volleyball. From 2004 an excavation started around the ancient Acropolis of Lissos and the Skanderbeg Memorial, which revealed Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine buildings, tombs and other findings.