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Travel to Libya — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorLibya
| Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya National name: Al Jumahiriyah al Arabiyah
al Libiyah ash Shabiyah al Ishtirakiyah al Uzma Chief of State: Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi
(1969) Prime Minister: Mubarak
Abdallah al-Shamikh (2000)
Current government officials
Total area: 679,358 sq mi (1,759,540 sq
km) Population (2007 est.): 6,036,914
(growth rate: 2.3%); birth rate: 26.1/1000; infant mortality rate:
22.8/1000; life expectancy: 76.9; density per sq mi: 9
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Tripoli, 2,357,800 (metro. area), 1,269,700
(city proper) Other large city:
Benghazi, 734,900 Monetary unit:
Libyan dinar
Languages:
Arabic, Italian, and English widely understood
in major cities
Ethnicity/race:
Berber and Arab 97%, Greeks, Maltese, Italians,
Egyptians, Pakistanis, Turks, Indians, Tunisians
Religion:
Islam (Sunni) 97% Literacy rate: 83% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$74.75 billion; per capita $ $12,300. Real growth rate: 6.8%.
Inflation: 6.7%. Unemployment: 30% (2004 est.).
Arable land: 1%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, olives,
dates, citrus, vegetables, peanuts, soybeans; cattle. Labor force:
1.64 million; agriculture 17%, industry 23%, services 60% (2004
est.). Industries: petroleum, iron and steel, food processing,
textiles, handicrafts, cement. Natural resources: petroleum,
natural gas, gypsum. Exports: $30.79 billion f.o.b. (2005
est.): crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas.
Imports: $10.82 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery,
transport equipment, semi-finished goods, food, consumer products.
Major trading partners: Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey, France,
South Korea, UK, Tunisia (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 500,000 (1998); mobile cellular: 20,000 (1998). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 3 (2002).
Radios: 1.35 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 12 (plus one low-power repeater) (1999).
Televisions: 730,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 1 (2002). Internet users: 20,000 (2001). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 83,200 km; paved :47,590 km; unpaved: 35,610
km (1999 est.). Waterways: none. Ports and harbors: Al
Khums, Banghazi, Darnah, Marsa al Burayqah, Misratah, Ra's Lanuf,
Tobruk, Tripoli, Zuwarah. Airports: 136 (2002). International disputes: Libya has claimed
more than 32,000 sq km in southeastern Algeria and about 25,000 sq km
in Niger in currently dormant disputes; various Chadian rebels from
the Aozou region reside in southern Libya.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Libya stretches along the northeast coast of Africa between Tunisia and
Algeria on the west and Egypt on the east; to the south are the Sudan,
Chad, and Niger. It is one-sixth larger than Alaska. A greater part of the
country lies within the Sahara. Along the Mediterranean coast and farther
inland is arable plateau land.
Government
Military dictatorship.
History
The first inhabitants of Libya were Berber tribes. In the 7th century
B.C., Phoenicians colonized the eastern section
of Libya, called Cyrenaica, and Greeks colonized the western portion,
called Tripolitania. Tripolitania was for a time under Carthaginian
control. It became part of the Roman Empire from 46 B.C. to A.D. 436, after
which it was sacked by the Vandals. Cyrenaica belonged to the Roman Empire
from the 1st century B.C. until its decline,
after which it was invaded by Arab forces in 642. Beginning in the 16th
century, both Tripolitania and Cyrenaica nominally became part of the
Ottoman Empire.
Tripolitania was one of the outposts for the Barbary pirates who raided
Mediterranean merchant ships or required them to pay tribute. In 1801, the
pasha of Tripoli raised the price of tribute, which led to the Tripolitan
war with the United States. When the peace treaty was signed on June 4,
1805, U.S. ships no longer had to pay tribute to Tripoli.
Following the outbreak of hostilities between Italy and Turkey in 1911,
Italian troops occupied Tripoli. Italian sovereignty was recognized in
1912. Libyans continued to fight the Italians until 1914, by which time
Italy controlled most of the land. Italy formally united Tripolitania and
Cyrenaica in 1934 as the colony of Libya.
Libya was the scene of much desert fighting during World War II. After
the fall of Tripoli on Jan. 23, 1943, it came under Allied administration.
In 1949, the UN voted that Libya should become independent, and in 1951 it
became the United Kingdom of Libya. Oil was discovered in the impoverished
country in 1958 and eventually transformed its economy.
On Sept. 1, 1969, 27-year-old Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi deposed the king
and revolutionized the country, making it a pro-Arabic, anti-Western,
Islamic republic with socialist leanings. It was also rabidly
anti-Israeli. A notorious firebrand, Qaddafi aligned himself with
dictators, such as Uganda's Idi Amin, and fostered anti-Western
terrorism.
On Aug. 19, 1981, two U.S. Navy F-14s shot down two Soviet-made SU-22s
of the Libyan air force that had attacked them in air space above the Gulf
of Sidra. On March 24, 1986, U.S. and Libyan forces skirmished in the Gulf
of Sidra, and two Libyan patrol boats were sunk. Qaddafi's troops also
supported rebels in Chad but suffered major military reverses in 1987. A
two-year-old U.S. covert policy to destabilize the Libyan government ended
in failure in Dec. 1990.
On Dec. 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 exploded in flight over Lockerbie,
Scotland, the result of a terrorist bomb, killing all 259 people aboard
and 11 on the ground. This and other acts of terrorism, including the
bombing of a Berlin discotheque in 1986 and the downing of a French UTA
airliner in 1989 that killed 170, turned Libya into a pariah in the eyes
of the West. Two Libyan intelligence agents were indicted in the Lockerbie
bombing, but Qaddafi refused to hand them over, leading to UN-approved
trade and air traffic embargoes in 1992. In 1999, Libya finally
surrendered the two men, who were tried in the Netherlands in 2000–2001.
One was found guilty of mass murder; the other defendant was found
innocent. Libya had hoped its fainthearted cooperation would lead to
suspended sanctions, which had severely affected the Libyan economy. The
UN did suspend its sanctions, but they were not formally removed for
another four years, until Sept. 2003, when Libya finally admitted its
guilt in the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to pay $2.7 billion to the
families. In 2004, Libya also agreed to compensate the families of the
victims of the UTA airliner bombing ($170 million) and the Berlin disco
bombing ($35 million).
After months of secret talks with the U.S. and Britain, Qaddafi
surprised the world in Dec. 2003 by announcing he would give up the
pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and submit to full UN weapons
inspections. After inspections at four secret sites, the International
Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Libya's progress on a nuclear bomb had
been in the very nascent stages. In May 2006, the U.S. announced it would
restore full diplomatic relations with Libya after a 25-year hiatus.
In Dec. 2006, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor working in
Libya were sentenced to death after being convicted of infecting hundreds
of Libyan children with AIDS. The evidence used to convict the medical
workers is considered highly specious, and many believe that Libya is
attempting to deflect the blame for the 1998 outbreak of AIDS in a Libyan
hospital to foreigners. In July 2007, Libya's Supreme Court upheld the
death sentences. Days later, however, the country's High Judicial Council
commuted the sentences. On the same day as the commutations, the
government agreed to pay $1 million to the familes of each of the 460
victims.
See also Encyclopedia: Libya.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Libya
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