Museum housing Libya’s ancient treasures reopens for first time since 2011 uprising that toppled Gadhafi

The Red Castle Museum in Tripoli has reopened for the first time since the 2011 uprising. who overthrew Muammar Gaddafirevealing treasures dating back millennia, from ancient mummies to relics troubled Libya and a fascinating story.

The fortress that houses the museum, formerly known as Al-Saraya Al-Hamra, has long been a central attraction in the Libyan capital Tripoli. It houses an extensive collection of artifacts spanning 5,000 years of history, from prehistoric times to Libya's Roman, Greek and Islamic eras.

Collections include Islamic art and architecture, as well as objects from Italian colonial rule, World War II and Libyan independence, while galleries focus on prehistory and ancient Libyan tribes such as the Garamantes.

“The opening of the National Museum is not just a cultural moment, but living evidence that Libya is building its institutions,” Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbiba of the Government of National Unity said at a fireworks-filled ceremony on Friday at the site.

The museum closed in February 2011 during the NATO-backed uprising against Gaddafi. anti-government protesters in the northeastern city of Benghazi, calls began for the leader to resign and release political prisoners. As protests intensified, demonstrators took control of Benghazi and unrest spread to Tripoli, where the Libyan government used lethal force against demonstrators.

When rebels launched their first attack on the Libyan capital in August of that year, a group of armed men was attacked. reported to have entered a national museum in the mistaken belief that it concealed the entrance to a secret government tunnel. The museum's exhibits remained largely intact, although a 1960s Volkswagen Beetle owned by Gaddafi was among regime-linked objects vandalized.

Gaddafi was eventually overthrown with the help of an international coalition that included the United States.

Reconstruction of the museum, built in the 1980s and opened by Gaddafi, began in March 2023 by Tripoli-based GNU.

The opening of the national museum signals the recovery of the country's cultural sector despite unresolved political dynamics. The country remains divided between administrations in the west and east, which have not had a unified budget for more than a decade.

But with elections in 2026 on the horizon, Hager Ali, a researcher at the German Institute for Global and Regional Studies, said the museum's opening carries a political message.

The discovery is “sort of a proof of concept for Western governments about stability, especially as we approach elections,” she told NBC News on Saturday, referring to GNU.

“There’s really nothing in Libya right now that isn’t political,” she added. “It’s kind of a symbol that anyone can get behind.”

Since renovations began, 21 artifacts have been discovered in Libya that were smuggled out of the country after the fall of Gaddafi, particularly from France, Switzerland and the United States, antiquities department chairman Mohamed Farge Shakshoki told Reuters ahead of the opening.

Libya is home to five UNESCO World Heritage sites, which were declared “endangered” in 2016 due to instability and conflict.

The historic city of Ghadames in western Libya was among the sites under threat, but conservation work carried out under the Libyan Cultural Heritage Management project led to the site being officially removed from UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger in July.