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Libya

Libya is a country in North Africa 90 percent of which is desert. The name "Libya" is an indigenous (Berber) one. Egyptian texts refer to , R'bw (Libu), which refers to one of the tribes of Berber peoples living west of the Nile River. In Greek, the tribesmen were called Libyes and their country became "Libya," although in ancient Greece the term had a broader meaning, encompassing all of North Africa west of Egypt.

Libya has one of the highest Gross Domestic Products per person in Africa, largely because of its large petroleum reserves. The country was led for over 40 years by Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, whose foreign policy often brought him into conflict with the West and governments of other African countries. However, Libya publicly gave up any nuclear aspirations after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Libya's foreign relations today are less contentious.

Libya extends over 679,182 square miles (1,759,540sq km), making it the fourth largest country in Africa by area and the seventeenth largest nation in the world by size. Libya is somewhat smaller than Indonesia, and roughly the size of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is bounded to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, the west by Tunisia and Algeria, the southwest by Niger, the south by Chad and Sudan, and to the east by Egypt. At 1,100miles (1,770km), Libya's coastline is the longest of any African country bordering the Mediterranean.

The climate is mostly dry and desert-like in nature. However, the northern regions enjoy a milder Mediterranean climate. Natural hazards come in the form of hot, dry, dust-laden sirocco (known in Libya as the gibli), a southern wind blowing from one to four days in spring and autumn. There are also dust storms and sandstorms.

With the discovery of oil in the 1950s also came the discovery of a massive aquifer underneath much of the country. The water in this aquifer, which predates the last ice ages and the Sahara Desert, is being pumped through a pipeline to the north to be used for agriculture. The country is also home to the Arkenu craters, double impact craters found in the desert. Oases can be found scattered throughout Libya, the most important of which are Ghadames and Kufra.

The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, the Fezzan, and Cyrenaica, each with its own topography and history. Tripolitania, in the northwest, includes a strip along the coastline that is an important agricultural region, where grains, vegetables, and groves of such crops as olives, dates, almonds, and citrus fruits are grown. The largest city in Libya, Tripoli, is in this region, and nearly a third of the population lives close to it. Tripoli is also the capital. Inland, the land rises into plains and the limestone hills of Jebel Nefusah, then joins the Red Desert, a wide rocky plateau of red sandstone.

The Fezzan area, which makes up most of southwestern Libya, contains vast sand dunes (ergs), all that remains of mountains from 600 million year ago that were eroded by sea water, which once covered the region, and wind. Occasional oases provided a haven for nomads in traditional times.

Cyrenaica, in the northeast, covers nearly half of Libya and includes the city of Benghazi, the second largest in the country and a major seaport and oil refining center. South of the coastal agricultural strip, the land rises to a rocky plateau that extends south to the Libyan Desert.

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