Libya

Abstract

The Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is the fourth-largest state in Africa, with a land area of 685,520 sq miles (1,775,500 sq km). It is located in North Africa, fronting on the Mediterranean Sea and bordered by Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, with Algeria and Tunisia to the west and northwest respectively. The country consists of three regions - Tripolitania in the northwest, Fezzan in the southwest and Cyrenaica in the east. Except for two strips of land along the coast, Libya lies entirely within the Sahara desert where the population is concentrated in a number of oases. Arabs and Berbers comprise 79 percent of the population. The remainder is made up of Egyptian, Greek, Tunisian, Italian and Chadian minorities. With its distinct accent and dialect derived from Arabic of the Nile Valley, the Arabic spoken in Libya is generally different from the French-influenced dialects of neighboring Maghrebian countries such as Algeria and Tunisia. The country's oil wealth has given its population one of the highest standards of living in Africa.