Murqub District
Roman Leptis Magna's modern district controlling the coastal corridor between Tripoli and Benghazi—transit territory whose partition would sever Libya's overland unity.
Murqub exists because the road from Tripoli to Benghazi needed waypoints. Stretched along 120 kilometers of Mediterranean coast between Libya's two major cities, this narrow district encompasses Khoms (ancient Leptis Magna) and the route that connects western Libya to eastern—the corridor whose control determines who rules the country.
Leptis Magna was Rome's finest North African city. Emperor Septimius Severus, born here in 145 CE, transformed his hometown into an imperial showcase: marble forums, a massive basilica, a circus seating 25,000. The ruins remain Libya's greatest archaeological treasure, remarkably preserved under Saharan sand until Italian excavators uncovered them. UNESCO designated Leptis a World Heritage Site in 1982.
The district's modern significance is strategic rather than archaeological. When revolutionary forces pushed east from Misrata in 2011, they fought through Murqub to reach Tripoli. The town of Zliten, 60 kilometers west of Misrata, changed hands repeatedly; its liberation opened the road to the capital. Today, checkpoints and militia territories fragment what should be Libya's primary transportation corridor.
Murqub's population of around 250,000 lives between two economic poles: Misrata's commercial port to the east, Tripoli's administrative center to the west. Neither city has invested in the district itself. The coastal highway carries traffic; the interior produces little. Leptis Magna receives the occasional tourist brave enough to visit.
By 2026, Murqub remains transit territory—a place people pass through rather than develop. Libya's partition would cut this corridor entirely, isolating Tripoli from overland access to the east and reducing Murqub to an archaeological footnote.