Libya

الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الاشتراكية العظمى‎ Al-Jamāhīriyyah al-`Arabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Ša`biyyah al-Ištirākiyyah al-`Udhmā Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Allahu Akbar  (Arabic) "God is Great"
Capital (and largest city)	Tripoli 32°54′N 13°11′E
Official languages	Arabic3
Government	Jamahiriya
- Leader	M. al-Gaddafi  (de facto)  Z. M. az-Zenati  (de jure)
- Prime Minister	Baghdadi Mahmudi
Independence
- relinquished by Italy	February 10, 1947
- from France/UK    under UN Trusteeship	December 24, 1951
Area
- Total	1,759,540 km² (17th) 679,359 sq mi
- Water (%)	negligible
Population
-  estimate	5,670,688 (105th)
- 2006 census	5,670,688
- Density	3.2 /km² (218th) 8.4 /sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2006 estimate
- Total	$74.97 billion (67th)
- Per capita	$12,700 (58th)
HDI (2005)	0.798 (medium) (64th)
Currency	Dinar (LYD)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
- Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+2)
Internet TLD	.ly
Calling code	+218
1 Includes 350,000 foreigners. 2 Libyan 2006 census, accessed September 15, 2006 3 italian widely spoke

Libya (Arabic: ليبيا ‎ Lībiyā; Amazigh: ), officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ( الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الإشتراكية العظمى ‎ Al-Jamāhīriyyah al-`Arabiyyah al-Lībiyyah aš-Ša`biyyah al-Ištirākiyyah al-`Udhmā), is a country in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), 90% of which is desert, Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa by area, and the 17th largest in the world. The capital, Tripoli, is home to 1.7 million of Libya's 5.7 million people. The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, the Fezzan and Cyrenaica.

The name "Libya" is derived from the Egyptian term "Libu", which refers to one of the tribes of Berber peoples living west of the Nile. In Greek this became "Libya", although in ancient Greece the term had a broader meaning, encompassing all of North Africa west of Egypt, and sometimes referring to the entire continent of Africa.

Libya has one of the highest Gross Domestic Products per person in Africa, largely because of its large petroleum reserves.

The country is led by Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, whose foreign policy has often brought him into conflict with the West and governments of other African countries. However, Libya publicly gave up any nuclear aspirations in the 2000s, and Libya's foreign relations today are less contentious.

History of Libya

Archaeological evidence indicates that from as early as the 8th millennium BC, Libya's coastal plain was inhabited by a Neolithic people who were skilled in the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops. This culture flourished for thousands of years in the region, until they were displaced or absorbed by the Berbers.

The area known in modern times as Libya was later occupied by a series of peoples, with the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals and Byzantines ruling all or part of the area. Although the Greeks and Romans left ruins at Cyrene, Leptis Magna and Sabratha, little other evidence remains of these ancient cultures.

The Phoenicians were the first to establish trading posts in Libya, when the merchants of Tyre (in present-day Lebanon) developed commercial relations with the Berber tribes and made treaties with them to ensure their cooperation in the exploitation of raw materials. By the 5th century BC, Carthage, the greatest of the Phoenician colonies, had extended its hegemony across much of North Africa, where a distinctive civilisation, known as Punic, came into being. Punic settlements on the Libyan coast included Oea (Tripoli), Labdah (Leptis Magna) and Sabratha. All these were in an area that was later called Tripolis, or "Three Cities". Libya's current-day capital Tripoli takes its name from this.

The Greeks conquered Eastern