Northern Albania in the context of "Gheg Albanian language"

Durrës County (Albanian: Qarku i Durrësit), officially the County of Durrës (Albanian: Qarku i Durrësit), is a county in the Northern Region of the Republic of Albania. It is the smallest by area and the second most populous of the twelve counties, with 292,029 people within an area of 766 km (296 sq mi). The county borders on the Adriatic Sea to the west, the counties of Lezhë to the north, Dibër to the east and Tirana to the south. It is divided into three municipalities, Durrës, Krujë and Shijak, with all of whom incorporate sixteen administrative units.

The county has geographically a coastline on the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast and extends in the Western Lowlands on a flat alluvial and coastal plain. The east is characterised by the Skanderbeg Mountains which splits the Western Lowlands from the Central Mountain Range. Its climate is profoundly determined by its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and its considerable change in terrain.

The House of Dukagjini is an Albanian noble family which ruled over an area of Northern Albania and Western Kosovo known as the Principality of Dukagjini in the 14th and 15th centuries. They may have been descendants of the earlier Progoni family, who founded the first Albanian state in recorded history, the Principality of Arbanon. The city of Lezhë was their most important holding.

Zojz is a sky and lightning god in Albanian pagan mythology. Regarded as the chief god and the highest of all gods, traces of his worship survived in northern Albania until the early 20th century, and in some forms still continue today. The old beliefs in the Sky (Alb. Qielli) are pagan beliefs preserved by Albanians since ancient times. In Albanian the god who rules the sky is referred to as i Bukuri i Qiellit ("the Beauty of the Sky"), a phrase that is used in pagan contexts for the Sun (Dielli), worshiped as the god of light, sky and weather, giver of life, health and energy, and all-seeing eye. The sacred significance of one of the main symbols of the sky cult – the eagle – has been scrupulously preserved by Albanians, who have always considered it their animal totem. An epithet considered to be associated with the sky-god is "father", thought to be contained in the Albanian noun Zot ("Sky Father", from Proto-Albanian: *dźie̅u ̊ a(t)t-), used to refer to the supreme entity. A remarkable reflection of Proto-Indo-European mythology associated with the dawn goddess *H₂éwsōs is the Albanian tradition according to which the dawn goddess – Prende – is the daughter of the sky god – Zojz.

In classical antiquity Zojz was presumably worshiped by Illyrians as the ancestors of the Albanians. Albanian Zojz is the clear equivalent and cognate of Messapic Zis and Ancient Greek Zeus (all from Proto-Indo-European *Di̯ḗu̯s 'sky god'). The Albanian tradition according to which the Sun is an "eye", is a reflection of the Indo-European belief according to which the Sun is the eye of the Sky-God. The Sun, referred to as "the all-seeing (big) eye" is invoked in Albanian solemn oaths (be), and information about everything that happens on Earth is asked to the all-seeing Sun in ritual songs. Albanian folk beliefs regard the lightning as the "fire of the sky" (Zjarri i Qiellit) and consider it as the "weapon of the deity". Finding correspondences with Albanian folk beliefs and practices, the Illyrian Sun-deity, which was the chief cult object of the Illyrians, worshipped in a widespread and complex religious system, is figuratively represented on Iron Age plaques from Lake Shkodra as the god of the sky and lightning, also associated with the fire altar where he throws lightning bolts. Albanian rituals to avert big storms with torrential rains, lightning, and hail, seek assistance from the supernatural power of the Fire (Zjarri, evidently also called with the theonym Enji). Albanian rituals for rainmaking invoke the Sky and the Sun. The cult practiced by the Albanians on several sacred mountains (notably on Mount Tomorr in central Albania) performed with pilgrimages, prayers to the Sun, ritual bonfires, and animal sacrifices, is considered a continuation of the ancient Indo-European sky-god worship. The cult of the Sky is also preserved in Albanian solemn oaths. The Sky (Qielli) is often paired with the Earth (Dheu) in Albanian oath swearings.