Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed dictator of Libya, was killed on Thursday following Libyan fighters' capture of Sirte, the former ruler's hometown.
According to the Associated Press, the city of Sirte, located on the north coast of Libya, was one of the last holdout for forces loyal to Gaddafi after rebels took Bani Walid earlier this week.
The city of Sirte has a population of about 75,000 people, according to World-Gazetter.com. It's located on the coast between Tripoli, the capital of Libya, and Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, which also served as the temporary headquarters for the transitional government.
According to The New York Times, Gaddafi was born in a tent just outside of the city.
In the Lonely Planet's Libya Travel Guide, Anthony Ham writes that Gaddafi "transformed [Sirte] from a small village into a central pillar of his ambitious scheme for an economic and political community of African states."
According to The Europa World Year Book 2004, Gaddafi moved all government offices, save for two, to Sirte in 1988.
In 1991, Al-Tahadi University was founded in Sirte, according to the African Studies Center at Michigan State University.
But many residents had fled the city in recent months due to fighting between rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces. "There's hardly a building a Sirte that hasn't been damaged," the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reported on Wednesday (video available above).
LOOK: Location of Sirte:
