Libya enjoys a unique climate and geographical diversity that enhance its chances of becoming one of the most promising tourist destinations.
This could have added another source of income for the country that almost exclusively depends on oil. All Libyan leaders through the years did not focus on the tourism sector, but only on oil.
In Libya, both history and geography combine, creating a land full of tourist and archaeological landmarks that could have secured a significant branch of the economy.
Libya is home to many cultural and historical gems, varying from temples, tombs, mosques and churches, which were drawn widely from Christian and Islamic history, the Greek and Roman eras, as well as the desert dynasties
Due to conflicts and the absence of law caused by a struggle between the government and rival factions since 2011, Libya’s cultural and historical treasures have been subjected to looting, vandalism, construction on previously protected sites, and antiquity smuggling as means to fund radical groups.
In 2016, UNESCO placed five World Heritage Sites in Libya on its list of endangered locations due to the damage caused by the civil war: Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, Ghadames and Tadrart Acacus.
On the other hand, oil always been the priority for Libya and the international community. Last January, Libya’s oil revenues reached around $24.4 billion in 2018, which is a five year high and a 78% year-on-year increase, despite the instability at different oilfields.
During times of conflict, oil is more reliable than tourism, but if the crisis in Libya subsided, proper attention should be given to tourist sites.
For example, there is the Leptis Magna, which was founded by Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, the city contains the world’s finest remains of Roman architecture with its public monuments, harbour, market-place, storehouses, shops and residential districts.
Also there is al-Jaghbub Oasis which could take its visitors to an era of ancient Libyan history.
Closer to the features of Egyptian Siwa Oasis than to any other Libyan town, Jaghbub Oasis, with a population estimated at 2,768 people, is one of the few regions inhabited by Libya’s minority group of Berbers.
It was founded in 1851 by Sidi Moḥammad ibn Ali Sanusi al-Kabir, an Arab Muslim theologian and leader who set the Senussi mystical order, a Muslim political-religious Sufi order, in 1837.
The oasis is the home of a number of desert lakes, the most popular of which are the Malfa lake and the Fridgha. It is said that the salt in the Malfa lake, the largest lake in the Libyan Sahara, has healing properties.
Also, there is Acacus; a rocky massif in the desert of southern Libya has thousands of cave paintings in very different styles, dating from 12,000 B.C. to A.D. 100. They reflect marked changes in the fauna and flora, and also the different ways of life of the populations that succeeded one another in this region of the Sahara.
