Misrata is the Libya you won't see on postcards of Roman ruins. It is a working port and industrial city, the country's third largest and its most important commercial engine, with the busiest container port in Libya and a major steel industry. It is also the city that in 2011 held out for months against a siege by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, one of the harshest episodes of the civil war. The international press called it “the Libyan Stalingrad”, and the city came out of that experience with a political and military identity of its own that still carries weight in the country.
Misrata's origins go back to ancient Tubactis (or Tubartis), a Phoenician and Carthaginian settlement that in Roman times served as a centre of the grain trade from North Africa to Rome. Scattered traces of that ancient past remain, far less monumental than those at Sabratha or Leptis Magna. What draws visitors to Misrata today is mainly the chance to understand contemporary Libya: the city's part in the 2011 revolution, its role as the country's commercial gateway and its urban reconstruction, which is still under way.
Unlike the archaeological sites of western Libya, Misrata is not on any UNESCO heritage list and has no established tourist circuit. Its interest is contemporary and contextual. A visit, always as part of an organised tour, usually works as a stop or add-on within a wider route along the Tripolitanian coast.
Misrata stands on ancient Tubactis (Tubartis), a Phoenician and Carthaginian settlement that in Roman times was an important centre of the grain trade with Rome. Its modern name comes from the Arab tribes who settled in the region after the Muslim conquest of the 7th century. Under Ottoman rule it grew into a regional trading port. During the Italian colonial occupation (1911-1943) it saw heavy fighting between Italian forces and the Arab-Ottoman resistance in 1912, and was part of the Libyan revolt until Italy's final reconquest in 1922. In 2011 it became the starkest symbol of resistance against the Gaddafi regime. The city held out against a siege of several months by forces loyal to the regime and suffered heavy shelling and severe destruction until it was freed in May that year. Journalists nicknamed it “the Libyan Stalingrad”, and the siege thrust local militias into a leading political role in post-revolutionary Libya. Today it is the country's main commercial, port and industrial centre.
Read the full history ↓The historical heart of Libya: the three Phoenician cities that gave Tripolitania its name, the capital of kings, pashas and rival governments, and the birthplace of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The modern city of Misrata stands on the site of Tubactis (also transcribed as Tubartis), a settlement founded by Phoenician traders. It later came into the Carthaginian sphere, on the coastal strip of what is now central-western Libya. Unlike Sabratha, Oea (Tripoli) or Leptis Magna, Tubactis never became a great monumental city, but it was an active hub of maritime trade in the region.
After the fall of Carthage it became part of the Roman world, and the area grew into an important centre of the grain trade. Wheat and barley were exported from here to Rome as part of the agricultural supply system (annona) that fed the imperial capital. The region kept this farming and trading role over the following centuries but never took on the monumental character of the three great cities of Tripolitania. That explains why it has relatively few visible archaeological remains compared with Sabratha or Leptis Magna.
After the Arab-Muslim conquest of North Africa in the 7th century, the region took the name Misrata from the Arab tribes who settled in the area, although sources on this early period are scarce. Through the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Misrata was a secondary trading post within the network of ports along the Tripolitanian coast. It was linked both to Mediterranean trade and to the caravan routes that led into the African interior.
Under Ottoman rule, established in the region from the 16th century, Misrata gradually grew into an urban and commercial centre of rising importance, helped by its coastal position midway between Tripoli and Benghazi. By the end of the Ottoman period the city was already a regional port of some importance, though still far from the weight it would gain in the 20th century.
Misrata saw heavy fighting during the Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912), when the city was a key supply base for the Ottoman and Arab forces resisting the Italian advance in Tripolitania. The Battle of Misrata, fought between June and July 1912, ended with Italy taking the city. Italy held it until August 1915, when a widespread Libyan revolt broke out and no reinforcements could be sent in the middle of the First World War, so the Italian troops withdrew.
Misrata then stayed under local control until 1922, when Italy retook it as part of its policy of “pacification” of Libyan territory and made it a permanent part of the colony of Italian Tripolitania. The episode left the city with a local tradition of resistance that would return with full force ninety years later, in 2011.
After Libya's independence in 1951, and above all after oil was discovered towards the end of that decade, Misrata grew rapidly as a commercial and industrial centre. Two developments made it the country's most important industrial and commercial engine after Tripoli. One was its port, established in its modern form in 1978. The other was the Libyan Iron and Steel Company plant, one of the largest steelworks in North Africa.
By the end of the 20th century, Misrata had already become Libya's main point of entry for goods, with far more port traffic than any other port in the country, and it still holds that position today. This distinctive economic profile, built more on trade and industry than on tourism or state administration, partly explains the relative political and military independence the city would show in the 2011 crisis.
The event that defines Misrata in today's memory is the siege it went through during the First Libyan Civil War in 2011. When the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi broke out in February that year, Misrata quickly joined the rebels. Unlike Benghazi, though, it was surrounded by territory loyal to the regime and put under a long siege. The city faced artillery shelling, snipers and house-to-house fighting along Tripoli Street, the main artery of the historic centre.
The city held out for months in extremely harsh conditions. The intensity of the urban fighting and the determination of its defenders led the international press to call it “the Libyan Stalingrad”. Misrata was liberated in May 2011. Afterwards, the militias formed during the siege, known collectively as “the Misratans”, became some of the most influential military and political players in post-revolutionary Libya, with a decisive role in the conflicts that kept the country divided after Gaddafi's fall. Today Misrata combines that legacy of resistance with its established role as Libya's de facto commercial and port capital, and parts of the historic centre still show the rebuilding that is under way.
