Libya

🇱🇾 Libya

Benghazi

Benghazi (Arabic: بنغازي — population 700,000: the second-largest city in Libya and the capital of the Cyrenaica region) is the most historically layered city in North Africa: a coastal Mediterranean port founded as the Greek colony of Euesperides in the 5th century BCE (later Hesperides and then Berenice — named for Berenice II of Egypt, the Ptolemaic queen and renowned athletic champion), transformed by the Romans (who renamed it Berenice and made it the most important port of the province of Cyrenaica), then by the Byzantines, the Arab conquerors of the 7th century CE, the Ottoman Turks (who ruled it for three centuries), the Italians (who colonized it from 1911 to 1943 and left the most elegant European-colonial architecture in Africa: the Italianate streets, the Art Deco buildings and the Lungomare (the seafront promenade) that give Benghazi the feeling of a Mediterranean European city transported to the North African coast), the British and Free French (who liberated it from the Germans in WWII: the North African campaign of 1940–1943 saw Benghazi change hands four times between the Axis and the Allied forces), and the birthplace of the 2011 Libyan Civil War (the February 17 Revolution that began in Benghazi on February 17, 2011 and toppled Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship).

🇱🇾 Libya

Tripoli

⚠️ IMPORTANT TRAVEL ADVISORY: Tripoli is the capital of Libya, a country that has been in a state of ongoing civil conflict since the 2011 NATO-supported uprising that overthrew the Gaddafi regime. Most Western governments (including the UK, USA, EU member states, Australia and Canada) issue Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisories for all of Libya, including Tripoli. The security situation is volatile and unpredictable: armed militia groups, competing political authorities (the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity and the Tobruk-based House of Representatives), sporadic fighting, kidnapping risk for foreigners, and the near-absence of reliable emergency services make travel to Tripoli extremely dangerous for tourists. The British Foreign Office states: "We advise against all travel to Libya." The US State Department Travel Advisory is Level 4: Do Not Travel. DO NOT visit Tripoli unless you have expert professional security arrangements and a compelling professional reason to be there. This guide provides historical and contextual information only. Tripoli (طرابلس — Ṭarābulus; the ancient Oea, one of the three cities of the Roman Tripolitania (Tripolis means "three cities" in Greek — Oea, Sabrata and Leptis Magna); population 1.17 million city, 2.2 million greater metropolitan area) is the largest city in Libya, on the Mediterranean coast of northwestern Libya, at the edge of the Sahara Desert. Tripoli's historical significance is enormous: the city was a major Phoenician trading post from the 7th century BCE, the centre of the Roman province of Tripolitania (the Roman ruins of the arch of Marcus Aurelius (163 CE) survive in the old city), and under the Arab conquest (643 CE) became one of the most important cities of the Maghreb. The most extraordinary historical site accessible from Tripoli is Leptis Magna (125 km east — the UNESCO World Heritage Roman city, one of the finest and most complete Roman cities in the world outside of Pompeii and Herculaneum).