Bab al-Aziziyah from Gaddafi headquarters to a shelter for Libyan families looking for housing
Dozens of families live in the Bab al-Aziziya compound, the seat of the rule of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, which was almost completely destroyed in the wake of the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, but today it has turned into a symbol of the housing crisis in Tripoli.
Water tanks and air intakes are above the complex, which is surrounded by a thick metal fence.
In front of the front door, cars are moving, while inside young Libyans playing soccer.
After NATO air strikes flattened parts of the complex in 2011, the place was looted, much of it in ruins.
But its surroundings turned into a real residential neighborhood inhabited by families without homes.
These families live in dozens of small houses that housed soldiers, and in larger houses that were inhabited by high-ranking officers, some of which have been added to some of the rudimentary constructions and other annexes.
Bashir, 68, says that "hundreds" of Libyans came after the fall of the Gaddafi regime to reside in the area that was designated for the military.
He himself has lived since 2012 in a 400-square-meter house that he renovated.
"I can't complain, (but) it cost me so much, the house was burnt down and it took me a year to renovate," the man adds, as he smokes a cigarette.
The complex was built in the early eighties with a length of six kilometers and was improved after the American bombing in 1986, and was intended for the residence of Gaddafi as it was the general headquarters of his regime.
Bab al-Aziziya is located in the southwestern suburb of the capital, Tripoli, and it also contains a zoo, a swimming pool, a barracks and even tents, as Gaddafi used to follow a Bedouin lifestyle.
After the fall of the regime, the transitional authorities thought of turning it into a green area containing a recreational park and a monument commemorating the martyrs, but political chaos curbed the project.
The families residing in the place are threatened with eviction, at a time when bulldozers are working in Tripoli to demolish chaotic buildings that have multiplied over the years.
According to information obtained by AFP, the authorities intend to convert the complex into a park.
"I will not leave," Hassan says angrily, noting that he spent the equivalent of 27,000 euros to renovate the house in which he lives.
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