Day 3.

The view from the hotel roof at the beginning of day 3.


And another decent breakfast at the hotel restaurant.


Today's plan was to head east along to coast to the town of Khoms and visit the nearby ruins of the ancient city of Leptis Magna, one of the best preserved Roman ruins in the Mediterranean.


Some murals on a wall from the 2011 Libyan Revolution as we head out of the city.


Yousuf pouring us some tea his wife had made earlier.


Just before 10am we arrived at Leptis Magna, one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya.


The Berber and Punic city was founded in the second half of the 7th century BC. At the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, when the Romans conquered and completely destroyed the former Phoenician colony of Carthage and annexed all remaining Carthaginian territory, the city consequently became part of the Roman Republic.

We entered the site and walked north towards the magnificent Arch of Septimius Severus. Apart from a handful of local visitors, we had the place all to ourselves.


The triumphal arch was built in 203 AD and commissioned by Septimius Severus, who was born at Leptis Magna and was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. As Emperor, Severus led numerous conquests and the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent under his reign, encompassing an area of over five million square kilometers and stretching from present day Scotland all the way to what is now Iraq.

The arch was discovered in 1928 by Italian Giacomo Guidi and then subsequently under went extensive excavation and reconstruction.


Looking up at some of the ornate and very intricate sculpture work on the arch.


After being buried for many centuries under the sand, the detailed reliefs were remarkably well preserved.


We then continued along the paved road south-east of the arch.


A symbol of an evil eye, a curse believed to be cast by a simple malevolent glare dating from classical antiquity. On it's left is a variety of symbols to ward off the evil eye, including a fist shaped as a fig sign and a fascinus (divine phallus).


The Palaestra, dating to the reign of Roman Emperor Commodus (180-192). A field where men would partake in running, wrestling and ball games. As they wore no clothing while exercising, the field could also be called a gymnasium (from the Greek work gymnos for naked).


Next to the Palaestra was the Hadrianic Baths. In the foreground is the swimming pool and behind are the remains of the tepid and warm baths. The columns in the bath house were made from granite imported from Egypt and marble imported from Greece.


Yousuf pointing out an inscription in Latin on a marble slab in the centre of the frigidarium (cold room).


The inscription was a dedication to Emperor Arch of Septimius Severus.


As the hometown of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, Leptis Magna achieved its greatest prominence beginning in AD 193. The Emperor favoured his hometown above all other provincial cities, and the attention and wealth he lavished on it made the city the third-most important in Africa, rivaling Carthage and Alexandria.

The inscription translates as: To Emperor Caesar [Lucius Septimius Severus] Pius Pertinax Augustus, victor in Arabia, victor in Adiabene, greatest victor in Parthia, chief priest, holding tribunician power for the tenth time, acclaimed victor eleven times, father of the country, proconsul, consul for the third time; the Septimian Lepcitanians, (set this up) publicly on account of his outstanding and god-like favours to them.


One of the hot baths. Yousuf told us about a film made in 1957, Legend of the Lost, starring John Wayne and Sophia Lauren and shot partly in Libya. Leptis Magna was used extensively as a filming location and as a replacement for the ancient city of Timgad (actually situated in neighbouring Algeria).