Libya

The Libyan coast was settled by Phoenicians in the west — Oea (modern Tripoli), Sabratha, and Leptis Magna — and by Greeks in the east, where Cyrene and its sister cities formed the Pentapolis. Under Rome, Leptis Magna, home town of the emperor Septimius Severus, became one of the grandest cities of the empire, and its ruins are among the most extensive and best-preserved anywhere.

Arab armies brought Islam in the seventh century. Later came Ottoman rule and, from 1911, Italian colonisation, which was brutal — a genocidal campaign against the Senussi-led resistance in Cyrenaica, including concentration camps that killed tens of thousands. Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951 under King Idris; the discovery of oil in 1959 transformed a very poor country.

In 1969 a young officer, Muammar Gaddafi, seized power and ruled for 42 years through an idiosyncratic "state of the masses," oil patronage, sponsorship of militant groups abroad, sanctions, and a later rapprochement with the West. An uprising and a NATO air campaign in 2011 ended in his overthrow and killing. Since then Libya has had no stable government — rival administrations in the west and east, a proliferation of militias, a period when ISIS held the city of Sirte, and intervention by Turkey, Russia, and Gulf states — and remains split and militia-run.

Libya is an Arab, Sunni Muslim society, historically influenced by the Senussi Sufi order in the east, with Berber (Amazigh) communities in the Nafusa Mountains and at the oasis of Ghadames, and Tuareg and Tebu peoples in the southern desert. Family, tribe, and region are strong markers of identity, and the divide between Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and the Fezzan in the south is old and politically live.

Hospitality to guests is a deep obligation, and tea — poured in rounds, sometimes with peanuts or mint — is the ritual of welcome. Ramadan and the two Eids structure the year, and dress and behaviour in public are conservative.

Decades of dictatorship suppressed independent cultural and civic life, and the years of conflict since have scattered many Libyans abroad. The country's heritage — the Roman cities, the Saharan rock art, the caravan towns — is a source of pride even as much of it lies unguarded or damaged.

Almost the entire population lives on the Mediterranean coastal strip, in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata, and a string of smaller cities; the vast interior is near-empty desert dotted with oil installations and oasis towns. Everyday life is shaped by the absence of a functioning central state: security provided by local militias, patchy electricity and services, and prices and cash supply that swing with the politics.

The economy is entirely dependent on oil and gas, which fund the state — or the competing claimants to it — but production is repeatedly disrupted by blockades and fighting. Libya is also a major transit country for migrants trying to reach Europe, with a well-documented system of detention and abuse.

The catastrophic flooding of Derna in September 2023, when two dams burst above the city and swept away a quarter of it, killing thousands, laid bare how badly infrastructure and governance have decayed.

Libyan cooking blends North African and Mediterranean elements with an Italian imprint. Bazin, a firm barley-flour dough eaten by hand with a rich tomato and lamb sauce, is a national dish. Couscous, served with vegetables and meat, and rishta (pasta with chickpeas and greens) are staples, and sharba libiya, a spiced lamb-and-tomato soup thickened with orzo, breaks the fast in Ramadan.

Mbakbaka and mubattan (stuffed, fried potatoes), grilled fish and merguez, and asida (a plain wheat pudding with date syrup or honey) round out the repertoire. The Italian period left a taste for pasta and for good bread and pastries.

Strong sweet tea is constant; there is no alcohol; and dates from the southern oases, along with olives and olive oil from the coast, are everyday foods.

Libya's Roman heritage is extraordinary, if currently unreachable. Leptis Magna, east of Tripoli, spreads its forum, basilica, market, theatre, baths, and harbour along the shore beneath the Severan arch — a UNESCO World Heritage Site now listed as endangered. Sabratha, to the west, has a spectacular three-storey Roman theatre facing the sea. In the east, Cyrene and its port Apollonia occupy a green upland, the Jebel Akhdar.

Ghadames, near the point where Libya meets Algeria and Tunisia, is a UNESCO-listed oasis town of covered mud-brick lanes, painted rooms, and palm gardens, long called "the pearl of the desert." The Acacus Mountains in the Fezzan hold thousands of years of rock art amid eroded desert scenery and dune seas, and the Ubari lakes sit among the sands nearby.

Tripoli itself has an old walled medina with Ottoman mosques, hammams, and the Red Castle (Assaraya al-Hamra) museum. For now, all of this is effectively closed to travellers, and Libya is a country to read about rather than to visit.