Tripoli
Last survivor of three Phoenician trading posts—Oea outlasted Sabratha and Leptis Magna because of its harbour. Libya's 48 billion barrels (Africa's largest) generate 95% of export earnings. Two civil wars since 2011 crashed production; now recovering to 1.4M bpd.
Tripoli is the last survivor of three. The Phoenicians built three trading posts on this coast in the 7th century BC—Oea, Sabratha, and Leptis Magna—and the Greeks named the region Tripolis, 'three cities.' Sabratha and Leptis Magna became Roman ruins. Only Oea endured, absorbing the name meant for all three. Tripoli's survival owes nothing to grandeur and everything to its harbour: a defensible peninsula with deep water close to shore, sheltered from Mediterranean storms. Every power that controlled North Africa—Phoenician, Roman, Vandal, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, Italian—held Tripoli for the same reason.
The Ottoman Empire governed Tripoli from the 16th century until Italy seized it in 1911, importing hospitals, an airport, a railroad, and Africa's oldest trade fair (1927). But the transformation that mattered came underground. Libya holds Africa's largest proven oil reserves—48 billion barrels, 41% of the continent's total. Oil exports began in the 1960s under King Idris and exploded under Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule (1969–2011). Petroleum accounts for over 95% of export earnings and 60% of GDP. Tripoli, as the capital, channelled this wealth through state institutions, construction projects, and a patronage network that held the country together—until it didn't.
The 2011 revolution that killed Gaddafi shattered the state. Two civil wars (2011, 2014–2020) collapsed oil production from 1.6 million barrels per day to near zero at crisis points. Tripoli became the seat of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord while a rival government operated from the east. In August 2024, a dispute over the Central Bank shut down over half of Libya's oil production—700,000 barrels per day offline—until UN mediation restored output. By January 2025, production recovered to 1.4 million barrels per day, with targets of 2 million by year's end. Libya's GDP reached $71.2 billion in 2023, still 19% below its 2010 level.
Tripoli is a city that has outlived every regime that ever ruled it. The harbour that drew the Phoenicians still draws oil tankers. Whether the political system can stabilize long enough to exploit what lies beneath the sand remains the same question it has been since 2011.