 It was around this fortification, which was taken over and repaired by the Italians in 1912, that the settlement of Sirte grew up.Sirte served as an administrative centre under Italian rule.During the North African Campaign of the Second World War there were no noteworthy events in this location, which was characterised at the time as "a shabby little Arab village of mud huts, clustered on the banks of a foul-smelling stream."