Libya

**Libya** ( ''*, Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ *Libya''), officially the **State of Libya**, is a country in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. It covers an area of almost . Libya is the 17th largest country in the world.

Libya has three main regions: Tripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the northeast, and Fezzan in the south.

## Geography 
Libya's borders touch the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger, and Tunisia. To its north is the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of Libya is Tripoli, which is a port on the sea. Tripoli has about one million people.

The highest point in Libya is Bikku Bitti 2,267 m above sea level and the lowest point is Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m at below sea level. Most of the country is flat, with large plains. Because it is so dry, only 1.03% of the land is suitable for farming. It is divided from Tripolitania by the Gulf of Sirte. It was named by the Ancient Greeks who built the city of Cirene in 630 BC. After the war this area was governed by France, who wanted to annex to their Empire.

## The people
The Libyans are Muslim. The population of Libya in 2011 was said to be about 6,597,960. About 95% of Libyans are of Arab-Berber origin. Nearly all Libyans are Sunni Muslims. There are 1000 dirhams in a dinar. Dinar is the name of the money in many Islamic countries. The name comes from an old Roman coin, the denarius.

## Politics and History 
Libya is made up of three regions, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and the Fezzan. Tripolitania is the area on the north west coast, once called the Kingdom of Tripoli. It was ruled by Turks from the Ottoman Empire. The USA went to war with the Kingdom of Tripoli in 1805 over the problems of piracy in the Mediterranean. The USA had refused to pay increased "protection" money to the Turkish rulers.

Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were captured by the Italians during the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912. The reason for the war was to set up Italian Libya. Like other parts of North Africa, this area was once part of the Roman Empire and they said it belonged to Italy.

Many thousands of Italian settlers moved to Libya to set up businesses and farms, which were going to supply food and produce for Italy and its Empire. In those years the agricultural economy boomed, thanks to the creation of many dozens of new villages for Italian & Arab farmers. There was even an international race-car competition outside Tripoli (*Grand Prix of Tripoli* ).

Much of the North African Campaign of  World War II was fought in Libya, including the Battle of Tobruk. The British captured Tripolitania in 1942 and ruled it until 1951. had been the Emir of Cyrenaica, but went into exile in Egypt in 1922. At the end of the war, he returned as emir, with support of Britain. He was also asked to be Emir of Tripolitania. He was able to unite the three regions and became the king of the United Kingdom of Libya on 24 December 1951.

The problems facing Libya were huge. The country was poor, with little in the way of goods to export. Only 250,000 people could read. There were only 16 Libyan college graduates, no Libyan doctors, engineers, pharmacists, or surveyors.

In the early morning of 1 September 1969, a group of military officers took over the government in a coup d'état. Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi was named as chief of staff of the military. Gaddafi developed a good relationship with revolutionary Colombian Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group called FARC. Activities also included such as Libyan contribution towards Falklands War, where Gaddafi had provided 20 launchers, 60 SA-7 missiles, machine guns, mortars and mines to the Argentinian government. Libya was alleged to have role in bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and French UTA Flight 772 in 1989, despite the investigation found no evidence which involves any Libyan role.

The United Nations put economic sanctions in place against Libya in 1992. These sanctions stopped other countries selling weapons, investing money, or even allowing their people to visit Libya. After six days when US had captured Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi renounced Libya's weapons of mass destruction programs and welcomed international inspections to verify that he would follow through on the commitment. Gaddafi said he hopes that other nations would follow his example. UN removed the sanctions in the same year. United Nations observers would acknowledge such statement and cast doubt towards the whole issue.

Gaddafi also set about having normal relations with other countries. Western European leaders and many working-level and commercial delegations were able to visit the country. He made his first trip to Western Europe in 15 years when he traveled to Brussels in April 2004. He reattached the ties with Russia once again, which had remained idle since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

By 2010, Libya's Human Development Index was highest in Africa, the country ranked at #53 overall as 'High standard' on living bases. Libya remained a debt-free nation. In 2011, Human rights in Libya were praised by the U.N. Human rights council. However, after civil war, human rights started to get worse. In March 2013, according to the Barnabas Fund, at least 48 Christians were tortured inside Libya, one died in custody.

### Suffrage 
Every Libyan who is older than 18 can vote. This means that voting (also known as "suffrage") in Libya is *universal*.

## Civil War
 the leader of Libya who died in 2011. After his death Libya has been struggling with conflict]]
In February 2011, a civil war broke out in Libya when rebels fought against Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi and his government. NATO intervened in the war in favor of the rebels. However, some rebels had links with  al-Qaeda. NATO ended its mission in October after Colonel al-Gaddafi was reported to have been killed. In the aftermath of the civil war, a low-level rebellion by al-Gaddafi loyalists continued. Armed militias filled the gap left by the revolution. Two different national governments were organized in Tripoli and Tobruk and many fighters did not follow either of them.

## References
## More reading 
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## Other websites 
* Site-seeing in Libya
* Underground "Fossil Water" Running Out  Brian Handwerk, National Geographic, May 6, 2010. 
* Libya turns on the Great Man-Made River Marcia Merry, Printed in the Executive Intelligence Review, September 1991.