Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Libya Through the Ages Part I: Ancient Libya

Bits of News (R. Scott Peoples)

An overview of Libya's past, which looks at a variety of topics but also includes some data about Libya's relationship with ancient Egypt, with which it shares a border today.


Ancient peoples weren't quite as obsessed with straight lines as the folks in the U.N. decolonization committees were – they divvied things up more according to convenience of travel and ease of access, so the borders of "Libya" were often indistinct, especially in the Fezzan, the desert areas of the south and west. Along the coast, two main regions developed: Cyrenaica in the east, which was largely influenced by Greece, Egypt, and the Mashriq (eastern Islamic world), and Tripolitania, whose history is intertwined with Carthage, Rome, and the Maghrib (Mashriq's western counterpart).

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