Misrata (also spelled Misurata or Misratah; ?????? ??????) is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated 187 km to the east of Tripoli and 825 km west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With a population of about 881,000, it is the third-largest city in Libya, after Tripoli and Benghazi. It is the capital city of the Misrata District and has been called the trade capital of Libya. The harbor is at Qasr Ahmad.
The name "Misrata ??????" derives from the Misrata tribe, a section of the larger Berber Hawwara confederacy, whose homeland in Antiquity and the early Islamic period was coastal Tripolitania.
"Trirone Acrone", the oldest description mentioned by Ptolemy III Euergetes of Misrata because it consists of three heads of land stretching into the sea depth, and got Misrata importance by being at the crossroads of many convoys and also because it is in the middle of an agricultural area with the name of "Cephalae Promentorium" (Kevalay) of the Greek geographer Strabo. And the city of Misrata is one of the commercial stations that have been built by the Phoenicians, since more than 3000 years (The Tenth Century BC) to the north-western parts of the Libyan coast. The flag then by the name of Thubactis Misrata and know that name in relation to the Berber tribe of Misurata (The Misurateens), which means the sailors.
