Back to Tripoli
The road
back to
We are
heading to 
After lunch
we head in to the old medina - I have spent time there before but it is
different today - first of all the city has gotten back to life now - it is no
longer a city which is severally marked by a holiday mood. It is also somewhat
different to go with a guide he actually points out a few things about how they
reused old roman columns in the old town - I had not really noticed all the old
roman column pieces all over the medina before - but now I start seeing them
all over the place - just because they are actually there.
We go for a
cup of coffee in a hotel in the old town right next to the arch of Marcus
Aurelius it is in one of the old buildings and we get to see how the old houses
were laid out - all build around a big courtyard with the parents living
downstairs with the kitchen, main room and guestroom and the sons living upstairs
with their wife's and kids.
Last stop
in the medina is a mosque always a pretty sight to see the inside of and old
mosque somewhere of course it was partly modernised using an electric clock to
guide the times of the daily prayers and so on but except for this is was an
old fashion mosque.
The ground flour of the museum covers the ancient periods from the old civilizations in the Sahara up until the Romans period. There is a wealth of different statues from the ancient cities along the north coast of Libya like Sabratha, Leptis Magna and Cyrene. Included in the collection are besides countless statues also some really nice examples of mosaics from the old cities. On the ground floor you will also find the museums most treasured possesion - Gadaffi old VW Beetle which he drove around in back in the 60s before the revolution.
The mezzanine flour covers the period of the Byzantines rule in Libya. To be honest if you are running short of time there is no reason to walk up to the two top flours - the second flour gives a introduction to the Islamic period in Libya and the top is mainly a praise to the current regime all most entirely in Arabic.
For those who do not have the time to get down and see all of Libya the museum will present some of the highlights and give you a pretty good idea about what you are missing.
