Tripoli

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس‎, Ṭarābulus; Berber: Ṭrables) is the de jure capital city and the largest city of Libya. Tripoli, with its metropolitan area, has a population of about 3,200,000 million people. The city is located in the northwestern part of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean and forming a bay.

Tripoli includes the Port of Tripoli and the country's largest commercial and manufacturing centre. It is also the site of the University of Tripoli. The vast Bab al-Azizia barracks, which includes the former family estate of Muammar Gaddafi, is also located in the city. Colonel Gaddafi largely ruled the country from his residence in this barracks.

Tripoli was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who named it Oea. Due to the city's long history, there are many sites of archaeological significance in Tripoli. "Tripoli" may also refer to the shabiyah (top-level administrative division in the current Libyan system), the Tripoli District.

Tripoli, Libya

Tripoli was the capital of Italian Libya in the first half of the 20th entury. It was called Tripoli italiana in Italian language and the inhabitants were called Tripolini. Italian Tripoli was under Italian control from 1911 until January 1943: officially it disappeared in 1947 after the Peace Treaty following WWII.

History

During the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 Tripoli was conquered by the Italian Kingdom. The Italian fleet appeared off Ottoman Tripoli in the evening of September 28, 1911: the city was quickly conquered by 1,500 Italian sailors, welcomed by the population

By the 1912 treaty signed in Ouchy, Italian sovereignty was acknowledged by the Ottomans, although the local Caliph was permitted to exercise religious authority. Italy officially granted autonomy after the war, but gradually occupied the region of Tripolitania. Originally administered as part of a single colony, Tripoli and its surrounding province were a separate colony from 26 June 1927 to 3 December 1934, when all Italian possessions in North Africa were merged into one colony called "Italian Libya".

Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس‎ / ALA-LC: Ṭarābulus;Lebanese Arabic: Ṭrāblos;Greek: Τρίπολις / Tripolis; Turkish: Trablusşam) is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Tripoli overlooks the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and it is the easternmost seaport in Lebanon. It holds offshore a string of four small islands, the only surviving islands of Lebanon. The largest of these islands, the Island of Palm Trees, was declared a protected reserve by UNESCO in 1992 for its rich ecosystem of trees, green sea turtles, and exotic birds.

With the history of Tripoli dating back to the 14th century BCE, it is home to the largest fortress in Lebanon (the Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles), and continues to be the second largest city (behind Cairo) in Mamluk architectural heritage. In ancient times, it was the center of a Phoenician confederation which included Tyre, Sidon and Arados, hence the name Tripoli, meaning "triple city" in Greek. Later, it was controlled successively by the Assyrian Empire, Persian Empire, Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Caliphate, the Seljuk Empire, Crusader States, the Mamluks, the Ottoman Empire and France. The Crusaders established the County of Tripoli there in the 12th century.