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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

Italo Balbo (1896-1940), governor of Libya between 1934 and 1940.

A photograph showing Free French troops digging an artillery emplacement at Bir Hakeim, Libya prior to the battle of Gazala in June 1942. (Imperial War Museums)