The Red Castle Museum, also known as As-saraya Al-hamra Museum ( ar, متحف السرايا الحمراء), the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli or Jamahiriya Museum,
is a
national museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
. It is located in the historic building known as the
Red Castle of Tripoli
The Red Castle, in Arabic As-saraya Al-hamra (), sometimes also Red Fort or Red Saraya, is a major landmark on the waterfront of Tripoli, bordering Martyrs' Square. It has been the home of the Red Castle Museum (under various names) since 1919, ...
( ar, السراي الحمراء), sometimes also referred to as Red
Saraya, on the promontory above and adjacent to the old-town district with
medina
Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
Ghadema.
Designed in conjunction with
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
, the museum covers 5,000 years from prehistory to the independence revolution (1953) era.
The museum has an entrance on historic ''As-Saha al-Kradrah'', the
Martyrs' Square.
The museum has been closed since 2011 due to security concerns.
History
The museum was established in 1919, when the
colonial Italians in Libya converted a section of the castle to a museum to house many of the archaeological artifacts scattered across the country since prehistoric times. The building was renovated in the early 1920s on plans by
Armando Brasini, who designed its characteristic arches. The square around the castle was designed in the thirties by architect
Florestano Di Fausto. When the British occupied Libya during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the museum occupied the entire complex of the castle and in 1948 was renamed The Libyan Museum. The museum reopened to the public in 1988, renamed the Assaraya Alhamra Museum–Red Castle Museum, with "state-of-the-art" facilities.
In 2011 the museum was closed due to security concerns following the
Libyan Civil War
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
and
subsequent unrest. The museum remained closed as of 2020.
During the 2011 war, rebels entered the museum and a few items belonging to
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by '' The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
were damaged. The most valuable items were kept safe at another location by the museum staff. The remaining items relating to Gaddafi were placed in storage by the staff.
Collections
The museum was designed with different wings and floors for the exhibition of the distinct collections.
*
Prehistory
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The us ...
of the Libyan region
*
Ancient Libya
The Latin name ''Libya'' (from Greek Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber: '' Libu'') referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Berbers occupied the area for thousands of years before the recording of hist ...
n tribes and traditions – the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
:
Garamentes
The Garamantes ( grc, Γαράμαντες, translit=Garámantes; la, Garamantes) were an ancient civilisation based primarily in present-day Libya. They most likely descended from Iron Age Berber tribes from the Sahara, although the earliest kno ...
,
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Al ...
, and others
* Libyan culture during the Phoenician–
Punic
The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of t ...
–
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
–
Roman Libya
The area of North Africa which has been known as Libya since 1911 was under Roman domination between 146 BC and 672 AD (even if in the meantime it was taken by the Vandals in 430 AD, and then recaptured by the Byzantines). The Latin name ''Libya'' ...
–
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
–
Ottoman Tripolitania
The coastal region of what is today Libya was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1912. First, from 1551 to 1864, as the Eyalet of Tripolitania ( ota, ایالت طرابلس غرب ''Eyālet-i Trâblus Gârb'') or '' Bey and Subjects of Tr ...
-era traditions
*
Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ...
*
Italian Libya
Libya ( it, Libia; ar, ليبيا, Lībyā al-Īṭālīya) was a colony of the Fascist Italy located in North Africa, in what is now modern Libya, between 1934 and 1943. It was formed from the unification of the colonies of Italian Cyrenaica ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
,
Libyan independence and 20th-century Libyan heritage
*
Natural history of the Libyan region
Gallery
See also
*
Zliten mosaic
*
History of Islamic Tripolitania and Cyrenaica
Islamic rule in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica began as early as the 7th century. With tenuous Byzantine control over Libya restricted to a few poorly defended coastal strongholds, the Arab invaders who first crossed into Pentapolis, Cyrenaica in S ...
*
History of Libya
*
List of museums in Libya
Libya has a long history and has been in contact with many other civilizations, from pre-historic age to the modern age, passing through so many ages such as: Garamantes, Greek, Roman, Islamic and many other ages.
See also
*List of buildi ...
References
{{Coord, 32, 53, 45, N, 13, 10, 49, E, display=title
Archaeological museums in Libya
Forts in Libya
History museums
Museums established in 1919
Museums in Tripoli
Natural history museums