BENGHAZI, Libya — Hassan al-Mogharbi usually tries to look at the bright side. On a recent day, he stood on the empty, exposed concrete platform that was once his bedroom and pointed across the ...

A part of the ancient city of Ptolemais is pictured near the town of Ad Dirsiyah, about 100 km (62 miles) east of Benghazi January 27, 2012. A part of the ancient city of Ptolemais is pictured ...

Others include the ruins of the Roman city of Leptis Magna, and Sabratha, both in western Libya. Apart from Cyrene, some 200 km east of Benghazi, the east of the country has the Apollonia site ...

“Whoever controls Benghazi controls Libya,” one of them told me. This is what makes the conflict in Benghazi so confounding: It cuts across communal lines and divides families.

And 120 miles east of Benghazi, the ruins of Cyrene reflect enduring Greek influences of language and architecture; the city’s Temple of Zeus is larger than the Parthenon in Athens.

Libya is replete with ancient ruins, archaeological sites and cultural landmarks. Why aren't the locals interested? In the summer of 2023, I went home to Benghazi in eastern Libya. Over the years ...

The destruction of Italian colonial-era buildings in the old city of Benghazi in Libya has triggered warnings of the consequences for the city's architectural heritage. In March, soldiers ...

A few families have returned to the ruins of their former apartments in the center of Benghazi, which was heavily damaged by fighting.

But, in another sense, the traces of Libya’s ancient history here too reflect something of its fractured present. The political fault lines of Roman Libya were not unlike the ones we see today.

Residents of Benghazi's old city were instructed by the army to evacuate their homes. By July 2017, Haftar had declared the city liberated, but many of its buildings were left in ruins.

Graffiti covers the walls of a Greek amphitheatre in Cyrene, an ancient ruined city in eastern Libya now struggling with neglect, vandals and illegal confiscation of land by locals.

Others include the ruins of the Roman city of Leptis Magna, and Sabratha, both in western Libya. Apart from Cyrene, some 200 km (124 miles) east of Benghazi, the east of the country has the ...