Mitla Pass

The Mitla Pass (Arabic: ممر متلة‎, Hebrew: מיתלה‎) is a 32 km-long snaky pass in the Sinai of Egypt, wedged between mountain ranges to the north and south, located about 50 km east of Suez. It is famous as the site of major battles between the militaries of Egypt and Israel during the wars of 1956, 1967, and 1973. During the last of these, on October 14, 1973, the Egyptians tried to reach the pass with elements of their Fourth Armored Division, but their offensive was halted by IDF armor and air power. Figures of Egyptian tank losses vary with the source consulted. The Two O'Clock War gives the Israeli figure but the Egyptian one is lower.

Mitla incident during the Suez War

During the Israeli invasion of Egypt in the Suez War of 1956 the pass was captured by the 202nd Brigade of the Israeli army, commanded by Ariel Sharon, without the approval of the Israeli leadership. Sharon faced elements of the Egyptian 2nd Brigade, which had prepared an ambush within the pass. Egyptians pinned down such famous Israelis as Mordechai Gur and Uri Dan under fire throughout the afternoon of October 31, 1956. Aharon Davidi and Rafael Eitan sent in two companies to clear Egyptians from both sides of the pass between 6:00pm and 9:00pm that evening. Israelis suffered 40 casualties and about 120 wounded, while Egyptians had 260 dead. Sharon was criticized for this. See Ariel Sharon: Mitla incident.

Mitla Pass (novel)

Mitla Pass (1988) is a novel written by the American novelist Leon Uris.

Gideon Zadok is an American author who is to follow an airborne team to secure the Mitla Pass during the Suez Crisis and thereby becomes involved in the Mitla incident when colonel Zechariah (whose real world counterpart is Ariel Sharon) decides to capture it despite other orders. During the course of these events, readers are taken back to previous events from Zadok's marriage, some of his deeds in the US Marine Corps, and also his parents' life and history, which goes from the shtetls of Russia, through their early years in Palestine, and on to Baltimore and the First World War.

Mitla

Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The site is located 44 km from the city of Oaxaca. in the upper end of the Tlacolula Valley, one of the three that form the Central Valleys Region of the state. The archeological site is within the modern municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla. While Monte Albán was most important as the political center, Mitla was the main religious center. The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name Mictlán, which was the place of the dead or underworld. Its Zapotec name is Lyobaa, which means “place of rest.” The name Mictlán was Hispanicized to Mitla by the Spanish. However, what makes Mitla unique among Mesoamerican sites is the elaborate and intricate mosaic fretwork and geometric designs that cover tombs, panels, friezes and even entire walls. These mosaics are made with small, finely cut and polished stone pieces which have been fitted together without the use of mortar. No other site in Mexico has this.

Mitla (cryptid)

The Bolivian Mitla, also known as Fawcett's Cat-Dog is a medium-sized carnivoran and described as a cat-like dog or canid-looking felid from the rainforest in Bolivia. The report comes from Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett who spent time in Bolivia between 1906-1914. Jeremy Mallinson, the director of Jersey Zoo (now Durrell Wildlife Park) searched for the Mitla in 1960.

The Mitla may be a canid, or a genus of cat similar to the jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi). Some authors suspect that it is feline, but more likely it is a dog, and a relative of the short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis). Dr. Karl Shuker described it as a mysterious dog with feline behavior (T. Pietrzak, unpublished.).

The place where Lieutenant Colonel Fawcett saw the mitla may be situated in forests eastern of Cuzco region near to Madidi jungle (established in 1995 to range Bolivian National Park), (Exploration Fawcett, 1953). This is also where Atelocynus microtis lives, which some writers say is the mitla, although the mitla is almost twice as big, and darker in colour.