fireworks

404 years ago a group of Catholic rebels were caught trying to blow up Parliament. Their failure, subsequent torture and gruesome deaths, have become the focus for one of the year's highlights, when millions of Brits will venture outside to light bonfires, burn effigies and set off around 30,000 tons of gunpowder in firework displays great and small.

Yet while most of those marvelling at rockets, firecrackers and Catherine Wheels will know about Guy Fawkes and his ill-advised plotters, not many will know fireworks go back thousands of years before, in ancient China.

Forty Years – Time for a Party?

Libya has been partying hard, with a spectacular show of fireworks, military parades, dancers, fly-overs, Touareg horsemen and possibly the biggest marquee ever erected for such as event. Tripoli was the main venue for the show, but some of the country's Unesco Heritage Sites, such as Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Ghadames, also played a part in some of the week-long festivities.