Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean.
Oea was an ancient city in present-day Tripoli, Libya. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC and later became a Roman–Berber colony. As part of the Roman Africa Nova province, Oea and surrounding Tripolitania were prosperous. It reached its height in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, when the city experienced a golden age under the Severan dynasty in nearby Leptis Magna. The city was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate with the spread of Islam in the 7th century and came to be known as Tripoli during the 9th century.
In Libya there are currently 106 districts, second level administrative subdivisions known in Arabic as baladiyat. The number has varied since 2013 between 99 and 108. The first level administrative divisions in Libya are currently the governorates (muhafazat), which have yet to be formally deliniated, but which were originally tripartite as: Tripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the east, and Fezzan in the southwest; and later divided into ten governorates.
Misrata or Misratah, also known by the Italian spelling Misurata, is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated 187 km (116 mi) to the east of Tripoli and 825 km (513 mi) west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With a population of about 881,000, it is the third-largest city in Libya, after Tripoli and Benghazi. It is the capital city of the Misrata District and has been called the trade capital of Libya. The harbor is at Qasr Ahmad.
Tripolitania, historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province of Libya.
Sabratha, in the Zawiya District of Libya, was the westernmost of the ancient "three cities" of Roman Tripolis, alongside Oea and Leptis Magna. From 2001 to 2007 it was the capital of the former Sabratha wa Sorman District. It lies on the Mediterranean coast about 70 km (43 mi) west of modern Tripoli. The extant archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
Msallata is a town in the northwestern part of Libya, in the Murqub District. It has a population of nearly 24,000, and was historically a center of Islamic studies. It is also known for having very wet winters, olive tree farming and olive oil production. The Tripolian Republic was announced in Msallata on 16 November 1918 which was the first republic in the Arab world. Along with the city of Tarhuna, it gave its name to the former Libyan district of Tarhuna wa Msalata.
A Roman circus was a large open-air venue used mainly for chariot races, although sometimes serving other purposes. It was similar to the ancient Greek hippodrome. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, circuses were one of the main entertainment venues at the time.
Murqub, sometimes spelt Al Murgub or Al Marqab or al-Morqib, is one of the districts of Libya. The main city and capital is Khoms. The widely visited UNESCO World Heritage Site of Leptis Magna is also located in the district. In the north, Murqub has a shoreline on the Mediterranean Sea. On land, it borders Misrata to the east and south, Tripoli to the northwest and Jabal al Gharbi to the west.
Zliten is a city in Murqub District of Libya. It is located 160 km to the east of Tripoli.
Tarhuna, also Tarhoona or Tarhunah, is a Libyan village 65 kilometres (40 mi) to the southeast of Tripoli, in the Murqub District. The Tarhuna District, including the city of Msallata, had an urban population of about 296,000. The population in Tarhuna proper was calculated to be 13,264 in 2011.
The Limes Tripolitanus was a frontier zone of defence of the Roman Empire, built in the south of what is now Tunisia and the northwest of Libya. It was primarily intended as a protection for the tripolitanian cities of Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Oea in Roman Libya.
Tourism in Libya is an industry heavily hit by the Libyan Civil War. Before the war tourism was developing, with 149,000 tourists visiting Libya in 2004, rising to 180,000 in 2007, although this still only contributed less than 1% of the country's GDP. There were 1,000,000 day visitors in the same year. The country is best known for its ancient Greek and Roman ruins and Sahara desert landscapes.
Al-Khums or Khoms is a city, port and the de jure capital of the Murqub District on the Mediterranean coast of Libya with an estimated population of around 202,000. The population at the 1984 census was 38,174. Between 1983 and 1995 it was the administrative center of al-Khums District.
Gerisa, also called Ghirza, was an ancient city of Roman Libya near the Limes Tripolitanus. It was a small village of 300 inhabitants on the pre-desert zone of Tripolitania.
Misrata or Misratah, also known by the Italian spelling Misurata, is a sha'biyah (district) in northwestern Libya. Its capital is the city of Misrata. In 2007 the district was enlarged to include what had been the Bani Walid District and the northernmost strip of coast of the Gulf of Sidra, that from 2001 to 2007 had been part of Sirte District. In the north and east, Misrata has a shoreline on the Mediterranean Sea. On land, it borders Sirte in south and east, Murqub in north and west and Jabal al Gharbi in south and west.
The area of North Africa which has been known as Libya since 1911 was under Roman domination between 146 BC and 672 AD. The Latin name Libya at the time referred to the continent of Africa in general. What is now coastal Libya was known as Tripolitania and Pentapolis, divided between the Africa province in the west, and Crete and Cyrenaica in the east. In 296 AD, the Emperor Diocletian separated the administration of Crete from Cyrenaica and in the latter formed the new provinces of "Upper Libya" and "Lower Libya", using the term Libya as a political state for the first time in history.
Roman colonies in North Africa are the cities—populated by Roman citizens—created in North Africa by the Roman Empire, mainly in the period between the reigns of Augustus and Trajan.
Richard George Goodchild was a British provincial Roman archaeologist. He was one of the pioneers of archaeology in Libya.
The Tripolitania Punic inscriptions are a number of Punic language inscriptions found in the region of Tripolitania – specifically its three classical cities of Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Oea (Tripoli), with the vast majority being found in Leptis Magna. The inscriptions have been found in various periods over the last two centuries, and were catalogued by Giorgio Levi Della Vida. A subset of the inscriptions feature in all the major corpuses of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, notably as KAI 119-132.
