Editing Libyan Desert (section)

===Historical desert===
{{further information|Berdoa|Marmarica|Leo Africanus|Toubou people}}
[[File:Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster) p 120.jpg|thumb|300px|In this map of Africa from 
[[Sebastian Münster]]'s ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]'' (1545), the Libyan desert (marked ''Libyae desertum'' and ''Libya Interior'') is shown in the center of the continent, west of [[Nubia|Nubiae regnum]], south of [[Regnum Tunis]] and east of [[Regnum Senegae]].]]
Historically, "Libya" referred to an ill-defined area to the west of [[Ancient Egypt]], whose boundary traditionally was the lake of [[Mareotis]], outside [[Alexandria]]. The ancient Greeks, such as [[Herodotus]], regarded the whole of the North African littoral, to [[Cape Spartel]] in [[Morocco]], as "Libya". Later, the Romans organized the region the provinces of [[Libya Inferior]] and [[Libya Superior]], which covered western Egypt and Cyrenaica. Thus the "Libyan Desert" was the desert to the south of [[Ancient Libya]]. With the organization of the [[Italian Libya|Italian colony of Libya]] in the 20th century the term "Libyan Desert" for this region became a misnomer, and the area of desert within Egypt became known as the "[[Western Desert (Egypt)|Western Desert]]" (i.e. west of the Nile, in contradistinction to the Eastern Desert, east of the Nile).{{sfn|Pitt|1980|p=13}}