Libya Crossword Puzzle for Kids

Libya ( Lībyā, Berber: ⵍⵉⴱⵢⴰ Libya), officially the State of Libya, is a country in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. It covers an area of almost 1.8 e6km2. Libya is the 17th largest country in the world.

Libya has three main regions: Tripolitania in the northwest, Cyrenaica in the northeast, and Fezzan in the south.

Geography

Libya's borders touch the countries of Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Algeria, Niger, and Tunisia. To its north is the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of Libya is Tripoli, which is a port on the sea. Tripoli has about one million people. Libya covers an area of about 1760000 km2.

The highest point in Libya is Bikku Bitti 2,267 m above sea level and the lowest point is Sabkhat Ghuzayyil -47 m at below sea level. Most of the country is flat, with large plains. Because it is so dry, only 1.03% of the land is suitable for farming.

The area around Tripoli is called Tripolitania, and it was the most developed during the Ottoman Empire.

Cyrenaica is an area of the north east coast. It is divided from Tripolitania by the Gulf of Sirte. It was named by the Ancient Greeks who built the city of Cirene in 630 BC. It includes the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi.

The Fezzan is an area of desert in south west Libya which the Italians made a part of Tripoli in 1912. After the war this area was governed by France, who wanted to annex to their Empire.

The people

The Libyans are Muslim. The population of Libya in 2011 was said to be about 6,597,960. This is not a large number for a country that has such a large area, so the population density of Libya is low. This is because much of Libya is in the Sahara Desert. Most people in Libya live in cities on the coast. People from Libya are called Libyans.

Libyans are mostly Arabs, though many are Berbers, a group which includes the nomadic Tuareg of North Africa. About 95% of Libyans are of Arab-Berber origin. Nearly all Libyans are Sunni Muslims.

Economy

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1958 and is about 95% of the country's export income. Oil is about 25% of Libya's GDP. Other exports include natural gas, salt, limestone and gypsum. Because so much of the country is desert, Libya has to import about 75% of its food. It does grow wheat, barley, olives, dates, citrus, peanuts, soybeans and many vegetables. In 1984, a 3862 km pipeline was started to bring underground water from the Sahara to coastal areas for irrigation. The pipeline which will take 25 years to complete has been estimated to cost about $25 billion. It is called the Great Man-made River, and is the largest water development scheme in the world.

The money of Libya is called the Libyan dinar. It was made to take the place of the old money, the Libyan pound, in 1971. There are 1000 dirhams in a dinar. Dinar is the name of the money in many Islamic countries. The name comes from an old Roman coin, the denarius.

Politics and History

Libya is made up of three regions, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and the Fezzan. Tripolitania is the area on the north west coast, once called the Kingdom of Tripoli. It was ruled by Turks from the Ottoman Empire. The USA went to war with the Kingdom of Tripoli in 1805 over the problems of piracy in the Mediterranean. The USA had refused to pay increased "protection" money to the Turkish rulers.

Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were captured by the Italians during the Italian-Turkish War of 1911-1912. The reason for the war was to set up Italian Libya. Like other parts of North Africa, this area was once part of the Roman Empire and they said it belonged to Italy. The Italians were the first country to use aeroplanes to drop bombs when they attacked Tripoli in 1911.

Many thousands of Italian settlers moved to Libya to set up businesses and farms, which were going to supply food and produce for Italy and its Empire. Libyans had some of their land in Cyrenaica taken from them by force and about 70,000 people died during the battles, starved, or were decimated by the terrible epidemic (called "Spanish flu") of 1918. Many thousands escaped to Egypt, but soon moved back when the new Italian governor Italo Balbo started a friendly attitude toward Arabs.

Italian Libya enjoyed in the late 1930s a huge development, with the creation of new railways, ports, hospitals, airports, roads. In those years the agricultural economy boomed, thanks to the creation of many dozens of new villages for Italian & Arab farmers. There was even an international race-car competition outside Tripoli (Grand Prix of Tripoli ).

Much of the North African Campaign of World War II was fought in Libya, including the Battle of Tobruk. The British captured Tripolitania in 1942 and ruled it until 1951.

Civil War

In February 2011, a civil war broke out in Libya when rebels fought against Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi and his government. NATO intervened in the war in favor of the rebels. However, some rebels had links with al-Qaeda. NATO ended its mission in October after Colonel al-Gaddafi was reported to have been killed. In the aftermath of the civil war, a low-level rebellion by al-Gaddafi loyalists continued. Armed militias filled the gap left by the revolution. Two different national governments were organized in Tripoli and Tobruk and many fighters did not follow either of them.

Other websites

Underground "Fossil Water" Running Out Brian Handwerk, National Geographic, May 6, 2010.

Libya turns on the Great Man-Made River Marcia Merry, Printed in the Executive Intelligence Review, September 1991.

Text adapted from the Simple English Wikipedia article “Libya” (revision 10900728, 2026-06-25), authors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.