Tripoli

click on the MAP

As-Sadah al-Kradrah

(The Green Square)

Dat el-Imad Trade Center

("Five Towers")

Old Town (Medina)

Clock Tower

Tripoli (Tarabulus) is the capital city of Libya.

The city is in the northwest of the country, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean Sea and forming a bay.

It has a population of 1.68million and it is located at 32°54'8" North, 13°11'9" East.

The climate is typical Mediterranean, with hot dry summers, cool winters and some modest rainfall.

Tripoli is the largest city, the principal sea port, and the largest commercial and manufacturing centre in Libya. It is also the site of Al-Fateh University. Due to the city's long history, there are many sites of archaeological significance in Tripoli. 

History

The city was founded in the 7th century BC, by the Phoenicians and named Oea. It was one of the three Phoenicians cities in the region (tri-polis in ancient Greek means "three-cities").

Tripoli then passed into the hands of the rulers of Cyrenaica (Barca), from whom it was wrested away by the Carthaginians. It next belonged to the Romans, who included it within their province of Africa, and gave it the name of Regio Syrtica. Around the beginning of the 3rd century CE, it became known as the Regio Tripolitana (region of the three-cities, namely Oea, Sabrata and Leptis).It was probably raised to the rank of a separate province by Septimius Severus, who was a native of Leptis.

Like the rest of North Africa, it was conquered by the Muslims early in the 8th century.

In 1510, it was taken by Don Pedro Navarro, Count of Oliveto for Spain, and, in 1523, it was assigned to the Knights of St. John, who had lately been expelled by the Ottoman Turks from their stronghold in the island of Rhodes. The knights kept it with some trouble until 1551, when they were compelled to surrender.

In 1714, the ruling pasha, Ahmed Karamanli, assumed the title of bey, and asserted a sort of semi-independence of the Sultan, and this order of things continued under the rule of his descendants, accompanied by the brazen piracy and blackmailing until 1835, when the Ottoman Empire (the "Sublime Porte") took advantage of an internal struggle.

The Ottoman province (vilayet) of Tripoli (including the dependent sanjak of Cyrenaica) lay along the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea between Tunisia in the west and Egypt in the east. Besides the city itself, the area included Cyrenaica (the Barca plateau), the chain of oases in the Aujila depression, Fezzan and the oases of Ghadames and Ghat, separated by sandy and stony wastelands.

In 1835, the Turks took advantage of a local civil war to reassert their direct authority. After that date, Tripoli was under the direct control of the Sublime Porte. Rebellions in 1842 and 1844 were unsuccessful. After the occupation of Tunisia by the French (1881), the Turks increased their garrison in Tripoli considerably.

Italy had long claimed that Tripoli fell within its zone of influence and that Italy had the right to preserve order within the state. Under the pretext of protecting its own citizens living in Tripoli from the Turkish Government, it declared war against Turkey on September 29, 1911, and announced its intention of annexing Tripoli. On October 1, 1911, a naval battle was fought at Prevesa, European Turkey, and three Turkish vessels were destroyed. By the Treaty of Lausanne, Italian sovereignty was acknowledged by Turkey, although the Caliph was permitted to exercise religious authority.

Tripoli was controlled by Italy until 1943. After that, it was occupied by British forces until independence in 1951.

Gurgi Mosque

Tipical internal court in the Medina

Arch of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

Tripoli Museum

It is placed in the old Ottoman Castle facing the Green Square.

        General views of the museum

             Roman mosaics and statues

   Statue of the Greek period

Sabratha

Views of the Roman Theatre

Sabratha, in the Zawia district in the northwestern corner of modern Libya, was the westernmost of the "three cities" of Tripolis region. It lies on the Mediterranean coast about 65km west of Tripoli, the ancient Oea. The extant archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Ancient Sabratha

Sabratha's port was established, perhaps about 500BC, as a Phoenician trading-post that served as a coastal outlet for the products of the African hinterland. Sabratha became part of the short-lived Numidian Kingdom of Massinissa before being Romanized and rebuilt in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. The Emperor Septimus Severus was born nearby in Leptis Magna, and Sabratha reached its monumental peak during the rule of the Severans. The city was badly damaged by earthquakes during the 4th century, particularly the quake of 365AD. It was rebuilt on a more modest scale by Byzantine governors. Within a hundred years of the Arab conquest of the maghreb, trade had shifted to other ports and Sabratha dwindled to a village.

   Temple of Isis

    Mausoleum of Bes

Leptis Magna

Arch of Septimius Severus

Decumanus

Forum

Theatre

Leptis Magna, also called Neapolis, was a prominent city of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located in Al Khums, Libya, 130 km east of Tripoli.

Ancient Leptis Magna

The city appears to have been founded by Phoenician colonists sometime around 1100 BC, although it did not achieve prominence until Carthage became a major power in the Mediterranean Sea in the 4th century BC. It nominally remained part of Carthage's dominions until the end of the Third Punic War in 146BC, and then became part of the Roman Republic, although from about 200 BC onward it was for all intents and purposes an independent city.

Leptis Magna remained as such until the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when the city and the surrounding area were formally incorporated into the empire as part of the province of Africa. It soon became one of the leading cities of Roman Africa and a major trading post.

Leptis achieved its greatest prominence beginning in 193AD, when a native son, Lucius Septimius Severus, became emperor. He favored his hometown above all other provincial cities, and the buildings and wealth he lavished on it made Leptis Magna the third most-important city in Africa, rivaling Carthage and Alexandria. In 205AD, he and the imperial family visited the city and received great honors.

During the Crisis of the Third Century, when trade declined precipitously, Leptis Magna's importance also fell into a decline, and by the middle of the fourth century, large parts of the city had been abandoned. It enjoyed a minor renaissance beginning in the reign of the emperor Theodosius I.

In 439, Leptis Magna and the rest of the cities of Tripolitania fell under the control of the Vandals when their king, Gaiseric, captured Carthage from the Romans and made it his capital. Unfortunately for the future of Leptis Magna, Gaiseric ordered the city's walls demolished so as to dissuade its people from rebelling against Vandal rule. But the people of Leptis and the Vandals both paid a heavy price for this in 523, when a group of Berber raiders sacked the city.

Belisarius recaptured Leptis Magna in the name of Rome 10 years later, and in 534 he destroyed the kingdom of the Vandals. Leptis became a provincial capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (see Byzantine Empire), but never recovered from the destruction wreaked upon it by the Berbers. By the time of the Arab conquest of Tripolitania in the 650s, the city was abandoned except for a Byzantine garrison force.

Today, the site of Leptis Magna is the site of some of the most impressive ruins of the Roman period.

Circus

Basilica

Computer reconstruction of the interior

of a Roman Basilica

Cyrene

Cyrene was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region and gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times. It lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar uplands. It was named after a spring, Kyre, which the Greeks consecrated to Apollo.

Cyrene was founded as a colony of the Greeks of Thera, traditionally led by Aristotle (later called Battus) of Thera, about 630BC, 10miles from its port, Apollonia (Marsa Sousa). Details concerning the founding of the city are contained in Book IV of the "Histories" of Herodotus. It promptly became the chief town of the ancient Libyan region between Egypt and Carthage (Cyrenaica), kept up commercial relations with all the Greek cities, and reached the height of its prosperity under its own kings in the 5th century BC. Soon after 460BC it became a republic; after the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) it passed to the Ptolemies and fell into decay.

Cyrenaica became part of the empire controlled by the Ptolemaic dynasty from Alexandria in Egypt and later passed to the Roman empire. Cyrene was the birthplace of Eratosthenes and there are a number of philosophers associated with the city including Callimachus, Carneades, Aristippus and Arete, and Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais in the 4th century CE.

In 74BC Cyrene was created a Roman province.

Cyrene's chief local export through much of its early history - the medicinal herb silphium - was pictured on most Cyrenian coins, until it was harvested to extinction. Though commercial competition from Carthage and Alexandria reduced its trade, Cyrene, with its port of Apollonia (Marsa Susa), remained an important urban center until the earthquake of 365. Ammianus Marcellinus described it in the 4th century as a deserted city, and Synesius, a native of Cyrene, described it in the following century as a vast ruin at the mercy of the nomads.

The names of six christian bishops are known: according to Byzantine legend the first was St. Lucius (Acts 13:1); St. Theodorus suffered martyrdom under Diocletian; about 370 Philo dared to consecrate by himself a bishop for Hydra, and was succeeded by his own nephew, Philo; Rufus sided with Dioscorus at the so-called Robber Synod (Latrocinium) of Ephesus in 449; Leontius lived about 600.

Cyrene is now an archeological site near the village of Shahat. One of its more significant features is the Temple of Apollo which was originally constructed as early as 7th century BC. Other ancient structures include a Temple to Demeter and a partially unexcavated Temple to Zeus. There is a large necropolis approximately 10km between Cyrene and its ancient port of Apollonia.

Zanzur

Zanzur (or Janzur) is west of Tripoli, on the way to Sabratha.

        Tombs of the Roman period

Zliten

Mosque

Zliten is a town placed on the southern Mediterranean coast, at 150 km to the east of Tripoli.

It is about 30 km east of the old Roman city of Leptis Magna, and about 60 km to the west of the city of Misrata.

Zliten spreads on an area of about 8sq.km. and has a population of about 200'000.

Its name in Arabic is very controversial. Some say it is an old Amazighi (Berberic) name, while others say it is an old Arabic name originally composed of two words which later on were made as one word.

There is an Islamic university. Its official name is "Al-Jamiaa Al-Asmariya" (Al-Asmariya Islamic University).

There are many faculties, as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Dentistry and Mouth Surgery, and the Faculty of Teachers. They are all under the supervision of Al-Merqib University.

There is also a higher vocational training centre in many engineering fields.

Zliten, as a region, spreads on an area of about 3000sq.km. In Zliten there are many ancient Roman sites such as "Darbuk Omira" (Villa of Omira), the Castle in Al-Jumaa, and many other sites.

Ghadames

click on the MAP

Mosque

Ghadames is an oasis town in the west of Libya.

It is located approximately 340 miles in the south west of Tripoli, near the borders to Algeria and Tunisia.

The oasis has a population of 7'000, among Berbers and some Tuareg. The old part of the town, which is surrounded by a wall, has been declared World Heritage of the UNESCO. Each of the seven clans that used to live in this part of the town had its own district, of which each had a public place where festivals could be held.

History

The first records about Ghadames exist not before the Roman period, when there were troops in the town from time to time. The Roman name for the town was Cydamus. During the 6th century, a Bishop lived in the oasis, after the population have been converted to Christians by the people of the Byzantine Empire. During the 7th century, Ghadames was ruled by the Muslim Arabs. The population quickly converted to Islam. Ghadames played an important role as base for the Trans-Saharan trade until the 19th century.

City walls

Covered street

Interior of a traditional house

Nalut

At the western end of the Jebel Nafusa, the regional centre of Nalut is home to an exceptional Berber granary and community. The population is estimated at 55'000. It is also home to the Alal'a Mosque (Nalut's oldest), which was rebuilt in 1312.

        Berber old town

Kawab

Qasr al-Haj

Tarmeisa

Mediterranean coastline

Akakus

East of Ghat, in Fezzan, there is a large area of low mountains which are the remains of a primordial plateau. They are called Tassili, which means "plateau" in local language: Jabal Akakus, Jabal Tadrart, Msak Millet and Msak Mastafat.

Significative traces of the pre-historic ages (such as chopper, stone tools, millstones, earthenware, rock paintings and graffiti, etc.) can be found "en-plein-air" in this region.

They show that Sahara was not an arid desert at that time, but it was rich of water, vegetation and animals; probably similar to a savannah.

           click on the MAP