Flag of Libya

What the flag of Libya looks like

The flag of Libya is divided into three horizontal bands. The top band is red, the middle band is black and the bottom band is green. The black band is twice as tall as each of the other two. In the center of the black band is a white crescent with a white five-pointed star placed within its opening. The proportions are 1:2.

The crescent and star are the main symbols, and they are the same elements that appear on a number of other flags of Muslim-majority countries. Libya's is unusual for combining them with a red-black-green scheme. Nearby flags such as those of Tunisia and Egypt use quite different designs. You can also view the Libya flag emoji.

Libya flag meaning and symbolism

The colors are often linked to the history of the country. One common reading ties red, black and green to the three historic regions of Libya, which were united at independence: Fezzan, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. Other explanations say red stands for the blood shed in the struggle against colonial rule, black for the dark years of colonialism and green for the land and for hope. Because there is no single official explanation, these readings vary.

The white crescent and star are symbols of Islam, the religion of nearly all Libyans. They were also a feature of the Senussi movement, a religious order that led resistance to Italian rule, and of the flag of its leader, King Idris. The colors red, black and green are also used in the pan-Arab color scheme, which makes the Libyan flag part of a wider family of Arab flags.

History of the Libya flag

Libya was an Italian colony from 1911 and was administered by the British and French after the Second World War. When it became independent as the United Kingdom of Libya on 24 December 1951, it adopted the flag it uses now, with the black field, crescent and star bordered by red and green.

After the coup of Muammar Gaddafi in 1969, the monarchy was overthrown and the flag was replaced with a red, white and black tricolor. In 1972 Libya joined the Federation of Arab Republics, and the flag added a gold hawk, the Hawk of Quraish. When the Federation broke apart in 1977, Libya changed its flag again. From 1977 to 2011 its flag was a plain green rectangle with no symbols, which made it the only national flag in the world with a single plain color and no emblem. Green was the color of Gaddafi's Green Book ideology.

During the 2011 uprising, the opposition raised the independence-era flag as the symbol of a new Libya. After the government fell in 2011, the National Transitional Council formally restored it, and it has been in use since.