TRIPOLI

TRIPOLI is a capital city of Libya, and a seaport (formerly part of Syria), 40 m. NE. of Beyrout; a place of great antiquity, and successively in the hands of the Phoenicians, Crusaders, and Mamelukes; it has many interesting Saracenic and other remains; its trade is passing over to Beyrout.

Tripoli was a province (1835-1911) of Turkey, in North Africa, most easterly of the Barbary States; stretched northwards from the Libyan Desert, lied between Tunis (W.) and Fezzan (E.), with which latter, as also with Barca, it was politically united; carried on a brisk caravan trade with Central Africa; capital, Tripoli, situated on a spit of rocky land jutting into the Mediterranean; surrounded by high walls, and Moorish in appearance.