LY · Curated travel guide
Acacus Mountains, Great Man-Made River, Bab al-Azizia and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Libya and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. One is on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
World Heritage
UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ghat District, Libya
Also called Tadrart Akakus, a mountain range in the Sahara in western Libya's Ghat District, east of the city of Ghat, running about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north from the Algerian border.
Photo: Luca Galuzzi ( Lucag ), CC BY-SA 2.5
Pipes supplying water to northern Libya
A network of pipes carrying fresh water across Libya from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a fossil aquifer; it is the largest irrigation project on Earth.
Photo: Jaap Berk, Public domain
Military compound in Tripoli, Libya
A former military barracks and compound in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, Libya's capital. It was the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's main base until anti-Gaddafi forces took it on 23 August 2011, in the Battle of Tripoli during the Libyan Civil War.
Photo: Stefan Krasowski, CC BY 2.0
Volcano in Libya
Lying in the eastern part of Libya's Fezzan region, a volcano that dates from either the Pleistocene or the Holocene.
Photo: unnamed NASA astronaut, Public domain
Highest mountain of Libya
Also called Bette Peak, the tallest mountain in Libya, reaching 2,266–2,267 metres (7,434–7,438 ft), on the Dohone spur of the Tibesti Mountains, in the south of the country near Chad.
Photo: NASA ASTER (& Bourrichon for cropping), Public domain
Square in Tripoli, Libya
Called Green Square under Gaddafi, Independence Square under the monarchy and first Piazza Italia, a downtown landmark on the bay in Tripoli, Libya, surrounded by the city's main commercial district.
Photo: David Holt, CC BY-SA 2.0
Mosque in Tripoli, Libya
A Sunni mosque in the heart of old Tripoli, Libya, part of a group of historic buildings.
Photo: Abdul-Jawad Elhusuni (عبدالجواد الحسوني), CC BY-SA 3.0
Desert in Egypt and Libya
A sand desert (erg) of approximately 72,000 km² (28,000 mi²) in the Sahara, reaching from western Egypt into eastern Libya, in North Africa, mostly covered in dunes.
Photo: Roland Unger, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Former Roman Catholic church in Tripoli, Libya
A former Roman Catholic cathedral on what was Piazza della Cattedrale, in the centre of Tripoli, Libya's capital. Finished as a church in the 1920s, in the era of colonial Italian Libya, it became the Algeria Square Mosque in c. 1970, and the square was renamed Algeria/Elgazayer Square.
Photo: الرادود السعودي محمد بوجبارة, CC0
WWII-era fort near Sollum, Italian Libya
A former fort in the colony of Italian Libya close to the Egyptian border, next to the Italian Frontier Wire. The coastal road, the Litoranea Balbo, came south from Bardia to the fort, which stood 8 mi (13 km) inland to the west of Sollum, and then turned east across the Egyptian frontier, over the coastal escarpment, to the port.
Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
Officially the State of Libya, a North African country in the Maghreb. The Mediterranean lies to its north, Egypt to its east, Sudan to its southeast, Chad to its south, Niger to its southwest, Algeria to its west and Tunisia to its northwest. Covering almost 1.8 million km² (700,000 sq mi), it is fourth in size both in Africa and in the Arab world, and 16th in the world.
Officially The State of Libya. Known locally as Libya, Lībiyā ليبيا.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Acacus Mountains, Great Man-Made River, Bab al-Azizia and Waw an Namus and others. Acacus Mountains is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Libya that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
1 of the 10 in this guide: Acacus Mountains. That is not the full count for Libya, only the listed sites that made this guide.
Berber, Arabic. The currency is LYD.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $12.82 for 1GB for 7 days. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Madar. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
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| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB for 7 days Cheapest | 1 GB | 7 days | $12.82 | Get it → |
| 1GB per day | 1 GB | 1 day | $13.34 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $23.02 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $34.19 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $36.34 | Get it → |
| 5GB for 30 days | 5 GB | 30 days | $56.99 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.
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