Libya

HISTORY

From 1912 to 1927, the territory of Libya was known as Italian North Africa. It was then split into two colonies, Italian Cyrenaica and Italian Tripolitania, run by Italian governors.

In 1934, Italy adopted the name "Libya" (used by the Ancient Greeks for all of North Africa, except Egypt) as the official name of the colony.

Libya was the setting for  the hard-fought North African Campaign during World War II.that ultimately ended in defeat for Italy and its German ally in 1943.

Libya was under Allied occupation for the following eight years, until December 24, 1951 when it declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, Idris I was proclaimed King of Libya.

In the early morning of September 1, 1969, a group of military officers took over the Libya government in a bloodless coup d'état, ending the monarchy under King Idris.. Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi was named as chief of staff of the military.Four months later, Gaddafi became the leader of Libya, a pisition he held until he was killed in the Libyan rebellion in 2011.

In 1977 Libya became "Al-Jamahiriya al-`Arabiyah al-Libiyah ash-Sha`biyah al-Ishtirakiyah al-Uzma" ("Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya").

In 1980, Libya's GDP per capita reached $13,030, while the United States' GDP per capita was $12,550.

This was a unique occurrence in economic history, as it marked the only time an African country had a higher per capita GDP than the United States.

Using Libya's coffers as his bank account, Gaddafi reportedly spent freely, amassing a personal fortune that included real estate and corporate investments all over the world. At the time of his capture and death in 2011, Gadhafi was one of the richest men on earth.

Gaddafi at the twelfth African Union conference in 2009

Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in August 2011 after the National Transitional Council forces seized Zliten and Tripoli during the Libyan Civil War.

Only a few towns in western Libya remained Gaddafist strongholds, after he was deposed as Libya's leader. Gaddafi retreated to Sirte after Tripoli's fall and was captured during the Battle of Sirte on October 20, 2011. He was killed less than an hour later.

In Gaddafi's compound, Libyan rebels found a photo album filled with pictures of Condoleezza Rice.

FUN LIBYA FACTS

Libya covers an area of almost 700,000 square miles (1.8 million sq kms). It is the 17th largest country in the world.

The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over one million of Libya's  6,597,960 people (2011 figure).

Between 1977 and the fall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011 Libya’s flag was plain green (see below), the only plain national flag.

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1958 and is about 95% of the country's export income and about 25% of Libya's GDP.

Libya has one of the world's biggest iron ore deposits in the Wadi ash-Shati', but  it is not mined because of its remote location.

The Libyan Desert (see below), which covers much of Libya, is one of the most arid and sun-baked places on earth. In places, decades may pass without seeing any rainfall at all. At Uweinat, as of 2006 the last recorded rainfall was in September 1998.

Because it is so dry, only 1.03% of the land in Libya is suitable for farming.

The town of 'Aziziya, which is located southwest of Tripoli, recorded an air temperature of 57.8 °C (136 °F) on September 13, 1922. For years it was considered to be a world record until it was overturned by the World Meteorological Organization in September 2012. The WMO felt that the inexperienced observer was reading from the wrong end of the high-temperature cylinder inside the thermometer, getting a reading which was 7 to 8 degrees too high.