
Sirte (; ar, سِرْت, ), also spelled Sirt, Surt, Sert or Syrte, is a city in
Libya. It is located south of the
Gulf of Sirte, between
Tripoli and
Benghazi
Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...
. It is famously known for its battles,
ethnic groups, and
loyalty
Loyalty, in general use, is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another h ...
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 ...
. Also due to developments in the
First Libyan Civil War, it was briefly the capital of
Libya as
Tripoli's successor after the
Fall of Tripoli from 1 September to 20 October 2011. The settlement was established in the early 20th century by the
Italians, at the site of a 19th-century fortress built by the
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
. It grew into a city after
World War II.
As the birthplace of
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddaf