Libya is the North African country with a total area of about 1.76 million square kilometers.
Its 1,759,540-square-kilometer territory makes Libya Africa’s fourth-largest country and the world’s roughly 16th- or 17th-largest, depending on the area dataset used. Most of the country lies in the Sahara, so enormous stretches are sparsely populated desert and semi-desert rather than intensively settled land.
Libya occupies much of North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. It borders Egypt and Sudan to the east and southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. Its three historic regions are Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan, with Tripoli serving as the capital.
A common mix-up is confusing Libya with Egypt, which is also vast and borders it. Egypt is larger by total area, while Tunisia and Morocco are substantially smaller. Libya’s Mediterranean coastline stretches for about 1,770 kilometers, an important geographic contrast to its immense inland desert.