Tripoli is the capital city and largest city of Libya, with a population of about three million people in 2019. The city was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who gave it the Libyco-Berber name Oyat. It is affectionately called ‘The Mermaid of the Mediterranean’ for its turquoise waters and whitewashed buildings. The vast Bab al-Azizia barracks, which includes the former family estate of Muammar Gaddafi, is also located in the city.
About Tripoli, Libya in brief
Tripoli is the capital city and largest city of Libya, with a population of about three million people in 2019. The city was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who gave it the Libyco-Berber name Oyat. It then passed into the hands of the Greek rulers of Cyrenaica as Oea. By the later half of the 2nd century BC, it belonged to the Romans, who included it in their province of Africa. In 1510, it was taken by Pedro Navarro for Spain, and in 1530, together with Malta, it became part of the Knights of St John, who had been expelled from their stronghold on the island of Rhodes. It is affectionately called ‘The Mermaid of the Mediterranean’ for its turquoise waters and whitewashed buildings. The vast Bab al-Azizia barracks, which includes the former family estate of Muammar Gaddafi, is also located in the city. Colonel Gaddafi largely ruled the country from his residence in this barracks. In the Arab World, Tripoli is also known as Tripoli-of-the-West, to distinguish it from its Phoenician sister city Tripoli, Lebanon, known in Arabic as Ṭarābulus al-Sham, meaning ‘Levantine Tripoli’ It is a Greek name that means ‘Three Cities’, introduced in Western European languages through the Italian Tripoli. There is evidence to suggest that the Tripolitania region was in some economic decline during the 5th and 6th centuries, in part due to the political unrest spreading across the Mediterranean world in the wake of the collapse of the Western Roman empire.
According to al-Baladhuri, Tripoli was, unlike North Africa, taken by the Muslims very early after Alexandria, in the 22nd year of the Hijra, that is between November 6, 42 and 18 November 643 AD. For some time it was a part of some time of the Berber empire, including the Hafsids and the Almohad dynasty. It was also a stronghold of the Ottomans, who expelled the Turks from their territory on Rhodes, and enhanced the walls of the city’s walls. The only visible Roman remains, apart from scattered columns and capitals, is the Arch of Marcus Aurelius from the 2 second century AD. The fact that Tripoli has been continuously inhabited, unlike e. g., Sabratha and Leptis Magna, has meant that the inhabitants have either quarried material from older buildings or built on top of them, burying them beneath the streets, where they remain largely unexcavated. The port of Tripoli is the country’s largest commercial and manufacturing center, and is also the site of the University of Tripoli. The Greeks were probably attracted to the site by its natural harbour, flanked on the western shore by the small, easily defensible peninsula, on which they established their colony. It became known as the Regio Tripolitana, meaning’region of the three cities’
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This page is based on the article Tripoli, Libya published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
