A country in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. There are thirty-four municipalities of Libya, known by the Arabic term sha'biyat (singular sha'biyah). These came recently (in the 1990s to replaced old Baladiyat systam. The Baladiyat system in turn was introduced to replace the system of muhafazah (governorates or provinces) that existed from the 1960s to the 1970s.