Libya

Libya. Warm sun, warm hearts. A great country with a great history, a country of breathtaking beauty. High mountain chains are just one of the beauties of its fabulous landscape with green fields and sun-drenched Mediterranean beaches. The desert, watered by magnificent oasis, extends far into Africa.
Fabulous villages and cities scattered amongst meadows, with oasis everywhere. Historical monuments forests, towering mountains... and a warm Libyan Arab welcome.

Libya’s strategic, geographical position and profound history make it a vital link between the eastern and western parts of the Arab world, and between Europe and Africa.

The country has known its ups and downs, but the historical monuments are a testimony of the great Libyan civilization of old. Look at the engravings of the Akakus mountains, the drawings in the MATCHANDOUSH caves. The cities of JARMA, ZAKAKRA, and SABHA in the south, and the historical city of GHIRZA in the centre.

Libya has played host to many civilizations, and has enriched civilization in its turn, with writings, drawings and engravings in the caves of TADRART mountains, and archaeological treasures from ATAFT. The Phoenician, Roman, and Byzantine ports of TRIPOLI, SABRATAH, LIBDAH, SHAH’HAT, SUSAH, TUKRAH, and TALMITHA. The old Islamic cities such as SIRT, DARNAH, and AJDABIYA, and other cities in the heart of the desert, including GHADAMES, ZUWAYLAH, JALU, OJLA, GHAT, and FEZZAN. Not forgetting the places and fortresses of GHARYAN, MIZDAH, AL-QARYAT, YIFRAN, JADU, NALUT, MISALLATAH, and AWINAT.

The first site most tourists visit is TRIPOLI, Libya’s biggest city, the queen of the seas. It is an historical site. the city of Islamic civilization, Arab art and handicraft, where every monument tells a story. TRIPOLI has changed little since its foundation in the first millennium BC: it is still a lush garden filled with olive trees, palms, grapevines, and orange groves. The city has a wealth of old and new monuments.

Travel east or west, to nearby LIBDAH or SABRATAH, and soak up all the history. Shopping is a great pleasure, especially in the popular markets where you can buy a great variety of Libyan handicrafts such as traditional clothes, carpets, handmade gold and silver jewellery, copper and silver dishes, leather goods, and pottery.
Every kind of aquatic sport is practised in the resorts along the coast, where you will also find the port of BENGHAZI, which combines magnificent buildings with large, open spaces. In nearby SULUQ stands the mausoleum of OMAR MOKHTAR, hero of the Libyan Resistance during the Italian occupation.
Take the highway east to the magnificent cities of the Green Mountain: DARNAH with its falls and splendid coast; AL BAYDA’, a quiet city high up in the mountains; ancient SHAH’HAT (Cyrene) and beautiful SUSAH (Apollonia), TULMAYTHAH, TUKRAH, RA’S AL HILAL.

Libya offers you two thousand kilometers of splendid beaches, and some beautiful small cities each with its typical architecture and special characteristics, like AUWARAH, TUBRUQ, MISRATAH, AZ ZAWIYAH, AL-KHUMS, and ZLITAN.

Explore Libya’s desert in WADI ASH SHATI, the plain of AWAYNAT, BRAK, MURZUQ, and the oasis of AL KUFRAH, ZALLAH and BAZIMAH. Then cool off in AL BAYDA’ or near AL MARJ, or on the plain of DARNAH.
As you go further and further into the desert, all you meet are waves and waves, “the great sand sea”, but then there are the refreshing oasis. The history, the monuments and tales told by the locals make this place unique. It is a feast for the senses..
The jewel of the desert is GHADAMES, a mÈlange of natural beauty, important monuments and a distinctive architectural style for which it is famous.

Libya may be the land of ancient civilizations, but it also looks to the future. It is a country of peace. Libya, a land touched by history. Libya, officially the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is a country in Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, located between Egypt on the east, Sudan on the southeast, Chad and Niger on the south and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. Its capital city is Tripoli. The three traditional sections of the country are Tripolitania, the Fezzan and Cyrenaica.
The name “Libya” derives from the Egyptian term “Lebu”, referring to Berber peoples living west of the Nile, and adopted into Greek as “Libya”. In ancient Greece, the term had a broader meaning, encompassing all of North Africa west of Egypt, and sometimes referring to the entire continent of Africa.

History of Libya:
The land now is known as modern Libya has been, throughout the ages, subjected to varying degrees of foreign control. The Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, and Byzantines ruled all or parts of Libya. Although the Greeks and Romans left ruins at Cyrene, Leptis Magna, and Sabratha, little else remains today to testify to the presence of these ancient cultures.

The Arabs conquered Libya in the seventh century A.D. In the following centuries, most of the indigenous peoples adopted Islam and the Arabic language and culture. The Ottoman Turks conquered the country in the mid-16th century. Libya remained part of their empire, although at times virtually autonomous, until Italy invaded in 1911 and, in the face of years of resistance, made Libya a colony.

In 1934, Italy adopted the name “Libya” (used by the Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony, which consisted of the Provinces of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, and Fezzan. King Idris I, Emir of Cyrenaica, led Libyan resistance to against Italian occupation between the two World Wars. From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan. In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal in 1947 of some aspects of foreign control. Under the terms of the 1947 peace treaty with the Allies, Italy relinquished all claims to Libya.

On 21 November 1949, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution stating that Libya should become independent before 1 January 1952. Idris represented Libya in the subsequent UN negotiations. When Libya declared its independence on 24 December 1951, it was also the first country to achieve independence through the United Nations and one of the first former European colonies in Africa to gain independence. Libya was proclaimed a constitutional and a hereditary monarchy under King Idris.

The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 and the subsequent income from petroleum sales enabled what had been one of the world’s poorest countries to become extremely wealthy, as measured by per capita GDP. Although oil drastically improved Libya’s finances, popular resentment grew as wealth was increasingly concentrated in the hands of the elite. This discontent continued to mount with the rise throughout the Arab world of Nasserism and the idea of Arab unity.

On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 28-year-old army officer Mu’ammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi staged a coup d’etat against King Idris, while he was in Turkey for medical treatment. His nephew the Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi became King and it became clear that the revolutionary officers who had announced the deposing of King Idris did not want to appease him over the instruments of state as King. The reason for this was because he complained that his power was far less than that which he had been exercising as Crown Prince on Idris’s behalf. Before the end of 1st September, King Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest and they abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Qadhafi is referred to in government statements and the official press as the “Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution.”

Culture:
Libyan culture is, to a certain extent, similar to that of its other Arab neighbour states and the Libyan people very much consider themselves as part of a wider Arab community. The primary language is a colloquial form of Arabic that is unique to the area around Libya. There seem to be two distinct dialects and a couple of village and tribal dialects. Libyan Arabs have a heritage in the traditions of the nomadic Bedouin and associate themselves with a particular Bedouin tribe.
Family life is important for Libyan families. Most Libyans live in apartment blocks and various kinds of independent housing units depending on their income status. Most of the Arabs who have lived a nomadic lifestyle, traditionally in tents, have been settled into various towns and cities in Libya, their old way of life fading out. It is believed that there are still some who do live as they have for centuries in the desert, though no one knows their exact numbers. Most of the population are engaged in occupations in industry and services and a small percentage in agriculture.

Similar to some other countries in the Arab world, Libya can boast few theatres or art galleries. Public entertainment is almost non-existent even in the big cities. Most Libyans instead enjoy regular trips to the many beaches of the country. They also visit Libya’s many beautifully preserved archeological sites, especially that of Leptis Magna which is widely considered to be one of the best preserved Roman archeological sites in the world.

The nation’s capital Tripoli boasts many good museums and archives including the National Archives, the Government Library, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological Museum, the Epigraphy Museum and the Islamic Museum. The Jamahirirya museum, built in consultation with UNESCO is possibly the country’s most famous and houses one of the finest collections of classical art in the Mediterranean.

There has recently been something of a revival of the arts in Libya, especially in the field of painting and private galleries are springing up to provide a showcase for new talent. Conversely, for many years there have been no public theatres and only a few cinemas showing foreign films. The tradition of folk culture is still alive and well, with troupes performing music and dance at frequent festivals, both in Libya and abroad. The main output of Libyan Television is devoted to showing various styles of traditional Libyan music. Traditional Tuareg music and dance are popular in Ghadames and the south.

Location:
Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Tunisia
Geographic coordinates:
25 00 N, 17 00 E
Map references:
Africa
Area:
Total: 1,759,540 sq km
Land: 1,759,540 sq km
Water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative:
Slightly larger than Alaska
Land boundaries:
total: 4,348 km
border countries:
Algeria 982 km, Chad 1,055 km, Egypt 1,115 km, Niger 354 km, Sudan 383 km, Tunisia 459 km
Coastline:
1,770 km
Climate:
Mediterranean along coast; dry, extreme desert interior
Terrain:
mostly barren, flat to undulating plains, plateaus, depressions
Elevation extremes:
Lowest point: Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m
Highest point: Bikku Bitti 2,267 m
Natural resources:
Petroleum, natural gas, gypsum
Geography :
More than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert
Population:
5,900,754
note: includes 166,510 non-nationals (July 2006 est.)
Nationality:
Libyan(s)
Ethnic groups:
Berber and Arab 97%, other 3% (includes Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, and Tunisians)
Religions:
Sunni Muslim 97%, other 3%
Languages:
Arabic, Italian, English, all are widely understood in the major cities
Country name:
Conventional long form: Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Conventional short form: Libya
Local long form: Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah al Libiyah ash Shabiyah al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma
Local short form: none
Government type:
Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the populace through local councils;
Capital:
Tripoli
Administrative divisions:
25 municipalities (baladiyat, singular - baladiyah); Ajdabiya, Al Aziziyah, Al Fatih, Al Jabal al Akhdar, Al Jufrah, Al Khums, Al Kufrah, An Nuqat al Khams, Ash Shati, Awbari, Az Zawiyah, Banghazi, Darnah, Ghadamis, Gharyan, Misratah, Murzuq, Sabha, Sawfajjin, Surt, Tarabulus, Tarhunah, Tubruq, Yafran, Zlitan; note - the 25 municipalities may have been replaced by 13 regions
Independence:
24 December 1951 (from UN trusteeship)
National holiday:
Revolution Day, 1 September (1969)
Currency :
Libyan dinar (LYD)
Exchange rates:
Libyan dinars per US dollar - 1.3108 (2006), 1.3084 (2005), 1.305 (2004), 1.2929 (2003), 1.2707 (2002).

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