Tripoli, in full Ṭarābulus al-Gharb (“The Western Tripoli”) is the capital city of Libya. It is situated in northwestern Libya along the Mediterranean coast, it is the country’s largest city and chief seaport.
The city was known as Oea in ancient times and was one of the original cities (along with Sabratha and Leptis Magna) that formed the African Tripolis, or Tripolitania. Occupying a rocky promontory overlooking the sea and located due south of Sicily, the city was founded by the Phoenicians and later controlled by the Romans (146 BCE until about 450 CE), the Vandals (5th century), and the Byzantines (6th century). During the invasions by the Vandals the walls of the cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna were destroyed, and this resulted in the growth of Tripoli, which had previously been the least important of the three cities. In 645 the city fell to Arab Muslims led by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and it subsequently remained under Arab control (except from 1146 to 1158, when it was taken by Sicilian Normans). It was stormed by the Spanish in 1510 and was conquered by the Turks in 1551, after which it was made a colonial capital of the Ottoman Empire. From 1911 to 1943 it was in Italian hands, and from then until Libya’s independence in 1951 it was occupied by the British.
