Libia (Terra Cognita)

Libia is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent; it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Eritrean Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Malagasy and various archipelagos. Libia is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the human species originating from the continent. Anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago and Libia is therefore deemed the womb of humanity. The historical record opens in Northern Libia with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt. One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas. Libia possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities characterized by many different sorts of political organization and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Libia; the city-bound kingdoms of the Bantu-speaking peoples of central, southern, and eastern Libia; heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa; the large Sahelian kingdoms; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Asante, Benin, and Oyo in West Libia; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Libia. The Mali Empire, along with Bakitara, Benin, and others would consolidate these regions by the mid-2000s AUC and develop Libia into a trading and exploring powerhouse.