Libya

Libya is a large North African country on the Mediterranean, between Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Algeria and Tunisia. Most of its almost 1.8 million km² (700,000 sq mi) lies in the Sahara. Tripoli is the capital and Arabic the official language, while a Berber council has declared Tamazight official in Berber areas.

Berbers have lived here since the late Bronze Age. Phoenicians founded trading towns in the west and Greeks settled Cyrenaica, where they founded Cyrene in 630 BC; Rome later ruled the whole region, and Leptis Magna, home of the Severan dynasty, flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Arab armies brought Islam in the 7th century, and Ottoman rule began in 1551. Italy took Libya from the Ottomans in 1911, and Omar Mukhtar led the resistance to Italian rule. Independence came in 1951 under King Idris I, and Muammar Gaddafi led the country from 1969.

After the two main camps agreed to stop fighting in 2020, a unity government took office to organize elections, which rivalries have kept postponing. Oil, found in 1959, made the country wealthy and still drives the economy; Libya holds some of the largest proven reserves in the world and belongs to OPEC. The Great Man-Made River was built to bring fresh water to large parts of the country.

The ruins of Leptis Magna and Cyrene recall Roman and Greek rule, and Cyrene was home to a school of philosophy. Omar Mukhtar appears on the ten-dinar note. Couscous, steamed over a tomato and meat sauce, is a common meal, and some 150,000 Italians once settled in the country. Almost all Libyans are Sunni Muslims, and Libyan Arabic is the everyday language.