Libya is a country in North Africa. In the north it has a Mediterranean Sea coast, with Egypt to the east and Tunisia to the west. It also has land borders with Algeria, Chad, Niger, and Sudan. More than 90% of the country is desert or semidesert.
Archaeological evidence indicates that from as early as the eighth millennium BC, the coastal plain of Ancient Libya was inhabited by a Neolithic people, the Berbers, who were skilled in the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of crops. Later, the area known in modern times as Libya was occupied by a series of other 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.
Libya is culturally similar to its neighboring Maghrebian states. Libyans consider themselves very much a part of a wider Arab community. The Libyan state tends to strengthen this feeling by considering Arabic as the only official language, and forbidding the teaching and even the use of the Berber language. Libyan Arabs have a heritage in the traditions of the nomadic Bedouin and associate themselves with a particular Bedouin tribe.
As with some other countries in the Arab world, Libya boasts few theatres or art galleries. Conversely, for many years there have been no public theatres, and only a few cinemas showing foreign films. The tradition of folk culture is still alive and well, with troupes performing music and dance at frequent festivals, both in Libya and abroad. The main output of Libyan television is devoted to showing various styles of traditional Libyan music. Tuareg music and dance are popular in Ghadames and the south. Libyan television programmes are mostly in Arabic with a 30-minute news broadcast each evening in English and French. The government maintains strict control over all media outlets. A new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found Libya’s media the most tightly controlled in the Arab world. To combat this, the government plans to introduce private media, an initiative intended to bring the country's media in from the cold
HOW TO REACH
By plane - Tripoli is served by most major European and Arab airlines and of course by Libyan Airlines which uses the airport as its main hub. Essentially one may expect daily flights to/from most major European international airports such as Heathrow, Paris CDG, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Rome and multiple weekly flights to/from Milan, Manchester, Vienna, Alexandria, etc.
A new private Libyan airline, Afriqiyah, provides daily services to many European (mainly Brussels, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schipol and London Heathrow, according to their website) and African cities with Tripoli as a hub. It uses new Airbus 320 aircraft and seems to be expanding its 2007 route map rapidly.
Another new private Libyan airline, Buraq Air, provides domestic services as well as some flights to several international destinations including Istanbul, Ribat and Aleppo. Buraq Air has been cited several times as a great success story in Libya's effort to privatize its economy and break away from state-driven economic policies.
There are also some international routes between Libya's second city Benghazi to destinations such as Alexandria and Cairo (according to the LAA website London and Casablanca are planned from Benghazi). These tend to be more seasonal and one should check schedules ahead of time.
Of course there are many direct flights from places such as Amsterdam to small oasis towns in the middle of the Sahara but these are operated by the oil companies for private purposes (i.e. to ferry the foreign oil workers directly to the oil fields).
By train - Libya has no international train connections and no significant domestic train infrastructure.
By car - One may travel to Libya overland. There are bus and "shared taxi" (accommodating 6 people in a station wagon) services from such places as Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Djerba, etc.
There are many online blogs showing people having done the trip in their own 4x4s or using their own dirt bikes, campervans, etc. There are very few borderposts open to travel into the country with a foreign car: Ras Jdayr (from Tunesia) and Bay of As Sallum (from Egypt). At the border, one has to buy a temporary licence including a number plate for Euro 300 (March 2008).
STAY SAFE
Night driving in rural areas is not at all recommended, due to the high risk of accidents on and off road. Rural roads are usually not marked at all, which makes it hard to stay in lane.
In addition, many cars have non-standard headlights, making it very hard to see the road and oncoming traffic at the same time. Speeding is common (and the primary cause of death in Libya).
Camels cross at night on rural roads. Because of its height and mass, this animal can be very dangerous to passenger vehicles.
For an extra charge, some cars can now be rented or purchased with a "camel sensing" device. While not foolproof, this "camel radar" provides the warning that can make the difference.
It is difficult to navigate safely off road (especially in the dunes areas), due to the high horizon. The average speed for distances longer than 10 km is less than 15 km/h.
CITIES
