Flag of Libya

Meaning and history of the flag of Libya

Libya's flag consists of three horizontal stripes: red at the top, a double-width black band in the center, and green at the bottom. At the center of the black stripe is a white crescent moon with a white five-pointed star. Red represents the blood of martyrs in the struggle against Italian colonization, black symbolizes the historic Fezzan region and the dark colonial past, and green represents the Tripolitania region and prosperity.

This flag was originally the flag of the Kingdom of Libya, used from independence in 1951 until Muammar Gaddafi's 1969 coup. Gaddafi replaced it with a succession of other flags, including the famous all-green banner flown from 1977 to 2011, at the time the world's only solid-colored national flag. The kingdom's flag was restored by the National Transitional Council during the 2011 civil war as a symbol of the new Libya.

The crescent and star are Islamic symbols shared with numerous flags of Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, and Pakistan. Libya's current flag is identical to that of the former kingdom, establishing continuity with the era before Gaddafi. The three stripes also represent the country's three historic regions: Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan, reflecting the geographic and cultural diversity of a nation seeking unity after decades of autocratic rule.

You can view the flag of Libya in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full Libya profile, its map, or the current local time in Tripoli.