Libya

Where the name comes from

Libya continues an ancient name for peoples west of Egypt, recorded in Egyptian as Libu; Greek writers extended it to a much larger part of Africa.

First people

Amazigh communities lived here long before Phoenician, Greek and Roman settlements.¹

Known for

Libya is known for the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and for the Sahara, which covers most of the country.²

Outside contact

Ottoman control began in 1551, and Italy invaded in 1911.¹

The modern country

Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and the Fezzan had separate histories; a UN-backed settlement made them the three provinces of an independent Libyan kingdom in 1951.^3,4