Libya's Benghazi Hosts Rare 'Week of Culture'

A Libyan musician plays during a cultural week in the eastern city of Benghazi on June 14, 2021 - AFP
A Libyan musician plays during a cultural week in the eastern city of Benghazi on June 14, 2021 - AFP
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Libya's Benghazi Hosts Rare 'Week of Culture'

A Libyan musician plays during a cultural week in the eastern city of Benghazi on June 14, 2021 - AFP
A Libyan musician plays during a cultural week in the eastern city of Benghazi on June 14, 2021 - AFP

Libya's eastern city of Benghazi is hosting a rare "week of culture" featuring art, music and theater, as the country attempts to turn the page on a decade of violence.

"It's an honor to have an exhibition for the first time in Benghazi," said Elham el-Ferjani, an artist who traveled from the capital Tripoli in the country's west specially for the event.

Benghazi was the first city to rise up against longtime dictator Moamer Gaddafi in 2011 in a NATO-backed revolt.

The situation deteriorated into a complex war involving Libyan armed groups, foreign mercenaries and foreign powers, and an ensuing political crisis saw the oil-rich country split in recent years between rival authorities in the east and west.

An October truce set in motion a UN-sponsored process that led to the creation of an interim government tasked with preparing the country for elections this December and unifying its institutions.

Ferjani, whose work is inspired by Libyan desert rock art, Amazigh (Berber) culture and the North African country's decade of conflict, is displaying her paintings at the Barah cultural centre in the heart of Libya's ancient second city.

The opportunity to meet with artists who have traveled from all over the country was "a source of joy", said Ferjani, whose show kicked off the week's events, AFP reported.

Other activities include workshops on glass painting, photography and sculpture, as well as roundtables and conferences, said organizer Hazem el-Ferjani, who is not related to the artist.

The aim of the cultural week, which runs until Saturday, was "to revive the artistic and cultural life of Benghazi", a city long associated with violence, he said.

The program also features debates on Libyan cinema, a concert of Arab-Andalusian music and a play performed by a Libyan theater troop.



Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
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Europe's Oldest Lake Settlement Uncovered in Albania

A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci
A drone view shows archaeologists diving in the lake of Ohrid to uncover objects, in the village of Lin, Albania, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Fatos Bytyci

Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organized hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago. The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three meters (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.

The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.

Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.

"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.

Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.

The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.

It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.

Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.

"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.

Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.

"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.