The eastern oasis town of Jabgbub is to open a new museum next week. The King Idris Museum will house artefacts linked to the heritage and history of Jahgbub.
The town, some 290 kilometres south of Tobruk was where King Idris was born in 1889, although at that point it was in Egypt and Libya did not exist as a state. It became part of Cyrenaica in December 1925 when it was ceded to Italy by Egypt at the behest of the British. The town had been the centre of the Sanussiya order since 1885 when Muhammad Ben Ali Al-Senussi, the founder of the order and grandfather of the king, moved there from Mecca and set up a university. It and everything else linked to the Senussis was destroyed by Qaddafi.
The museum is not limited to the Senussi movement. The town is not far from Siwa and there are remains of small pyramids in the area.
