Geography of Libya

<p><a href="/facts/Libya/HMPH8PWR">Libya</a> is the fourth largest country in <a href="/facts/Africa/XkqQUP9s">Africa</a> and the sixteenth largest country in the world. It is on the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean</a> with <a href="/facts/Egypt/8Ttg0JwB">Egypt</a> to the east, <a href="/facts/Tunisia/4uC8Po6k">Tunisia</a> to the northwest, <a href="/facts/Algeria/UXDF4Tj6">Algeria</a> to the west, <a href="/facts/Niger/hRbX6MkM">Niger</a> and <a href="/facts/Chad/KStYoub3">Chad</a> to the south, and <a href="/facts/Sudan/yGeaNdvS">Sudan</a> to the southeast. Although the <a href="/facts/Petroleum/IQV0bHVd">oil</a> discoveries of the 1960s have brought immense wealth, at the time of its independence it was an extremely poor desert state whose only important physical asset appeared to be its strategic location at the midpoint of Africa's northern rim. 
</p><p>Libya lay within easy reach of the major European nations and linked the <a href="/facts/Arab/E77duPsg">Arab</a> countries of <a href="/facts/North_Africa/ItxQAfs7">North Africa</a> with those of the <a href="/facts/Middle_East/8CD6pLWv">Middle East</a>, facts that throughout history had made its urban centres bustling crossroads rather than isolated backwaters without external social influences. Consequently, an immense social gap developed between the cities, cosmopolitan and peopled largely by foreigners, and the desert hinterland, where tribal chieftains ruled in isolation and where social change was minimal.
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Geography of Libya open-in-new

Geography of Libya