Libya is formally the State of Libya, is a nation in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the eastern, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and also Tunisia to the northwest. Libya is made from 3 historical areas: Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica.

With an area of nearly 700,000 square miles (1.8 million km2), it is the fourth-largest nation in Africa and the Arab world, and the 16th-largest worldwide. Libya has the 10th-largest tested oil books on the planet. The biggest city as well as funding, Tripoli, lies in western Libya as well as includes over three countless Libya’s seven million people.

Libya has actually been inhabited by Berbers given that the late Bronze Age as descendants from Iberomaurusian and Capsian societies. In ancient times the Phoenicians developed city-states and also trading posts in western Libya while much more recently the Footrest Empire managed the north shoreline of Libya. Parts of Libya were otherwise ruled by Carthaginians, Persians, Egyptians as well as Macedonians before the whole area coming to be a part of the Roman Empire.

Libya was an early center of Christianity. After the fall of the Western Roman Realm, the area of Libya was mainly inhabited by the Vandals till the 7th century when invasions brought Islam to the region. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire as well as the Knights of St John inhabited Tripoli up until Ottoman regulation began in 1551.

Libya was involved in the Barbary Battles of the 18th and 19th centuries. Ottoman guideline continued until the Italo-Turkish War which caused the Italian profession of Libya and the establishment of 2 swarms, Italian Tripolitania as well as Italian Cyrenaica (1911– 1934), later combined in the Italian Libya colony from 1934 to 1947.

During the Second World War, Libya was an area of warfare in the North African Project. The Italian populace after that went into decrease. Libya came to be independent as a kingdom in 1951. A bloodless army coup in 1969, initiated by a coalition led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, overthrew King Idris I and also developed a republic.

Gaddafi was typically explained by doubters as a totalitarian, and was one of the globe’s lengthiest offering non-royal leaders, ruling for 42 years. He ruled till being overthrown and killed in the 2011 Libyan Civil War, with authority transferred to the General National Congress.

By 2014 2 competing authorities declared to govern Libya, destabilizing the country and bring about a second civil war, with parts of Libya split in between the Tobruk as well as Tripoli-based governments along with numerous tribal as well as Islamist militias. The two major warring sides authorized an irreversible ceasefire on 23 October 2020 and also a unity government took authority.

Libya is a member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Arab Organization, the OIC as well as OPEC. The country’s main religious beliefs is Islam, with 96.6% of the Libyan population being Sunni Muslims.