Libya: Did you mean...?

Eritrea, located on the Red Sea coast of the Horn of Africa, was the ‘firstborn’ colony of Italy. The potential of a trade centre and naval base at Assab first attracted Italian interests in 1869. The Kingdom of Italy, however, did not officially...

The estimated expanse of the Achaemenid Empire at its height c. 500 BCE was two million square miles. Most of this territory was conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Empire, who reigned from 559 to 530 BCE, the fourth king in...

Olives and olive oil were not only an important component of the ancient Mediterranean diet but also one of the most successful industries in antiquity. Cultivation of the olive spread with Phoenician and Greek colonization from Asia Minor...

The Second Battle of El Alamein (Oct-Nov 1942) was a major battle in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). The British Eighth Army led by General Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976) won a decisive...

The silphium plant of Cyrene, valued as a seasoning, aromatic, and for its medicinal properties, is referenced by several notable ancient writers, but two of the best-known descriptions come from Theophrastus (l. c. 371 to c. 287 BCE) and...

The Italian Colonial Empire emerged during the period of New Imperialism (late 19th–early 20th centuries) as the recently unified Kingdom of Italy sought to secure its place among the European great powers. Motivated by a combination of economic...

A photo of the leader of fascist Italy Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) at the gates of Tripoli, Libya, raising the "sword of Islam" and proclaiming himself the "protector of Islam" (20th of May 1937). The photo was retouched: the groom holding...

This prehistoric Saharan rock carving from Wadi Mathendous in the Fezzan, Libya depicts two cats fighting. Similar petroglyphs can be found in rock escarpments throughout the Sahara, providing valuable clues to the people who inhabited and...

Umar al-Mukhtar (1858-1931), a leader of the resistance to the Italian colonisation of Libya, arrested and transferred to the Palazzo del Littorio in Benghazi to be tried on 15 September 1931.

This aerial picture shows the ruins of Germa, known as Garama in antiquity. Garama was once the capital of the powerful Garamantean Kingdom which rose to prominence in the region of southeast Libya around 500 BCE and was a regional power...