Libya's Challenge: Not Re-building, but Rather Creating a Nation a special feature for British TV4 exploring Libya's repository of archival documents and how Gaddafi used and abused Libyan history to buttress his regime.Some of Libya's most precious archives survived the violent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. But can they now help Libya's new leaders forge a national identity, asks expert Jason Pack.When I arrived in early September I was pleased to see that the only visual change to the centre's exterior was the boarding-up of its windows. Miraculously, the 17 million documents concerning Libya's 20th century history have all survived both the war and Gaddafi's attempts to use and abuse history to buttress his claim to power.What they may find hidden beneath the surface is that the different regions of Libya were never fully patched together. Therefore, what the National Transitional Council is now engaged in isn't the rebuilding of Libya but actually the building of it from scratch.
How Libya's Archives Survived the War