Watch out the guards speak English

Today starts a bit different from the previous weeks - my backs are on the flour of the hotel room and still unpacked - well they are not all that unpacked given we just came the night before. But this is the first and only two night stay in the same place of the entire tour - hence you notice the convenience of not having to pack your back and put it back on a bus of 4WD. After breakfast we all head of it is an early morning drive to the old city of Leptis Magna it is a bit more than an hour away from Tripoli. And out there is an old Roman city left from centuries ago.

 

At the sight we will get a guided tour by a local guide who used to be a professor at the university in Tripoli.

But he had had to leave back in the 80s because of political reasons. As the tour carries on we realize that this guide is absolutely an outstanding guide with lots of information - and it soon becomes clear why he had to leave the university from political reasons. The only thing we wonder about is not why he had to leave - but how come this man is still alive. He does not come with any direct criticism of the current regime in Libya but he keeps giving really great sarcastic commentary which leaves no doubt about his true feelings about the regime in Libya. It is great finally to meet somebody who does not praise The Leader as a god like figure who can do no wrong - leading the country in the right direction all the time.

 

We start at the museum to get a quick introduction to the place and see some of the artefacts they have found around the place.

After this quick tour we go to the amphitheatre which is build into the ground. Originally there used to be a old quarry at the spot where they places the amphitheatre but that had stopped being of use and hence the locals thought - hey it is a lot easier to build this building down in the ground instead of building it on top of the ground. Therefore an amphitheatre below ground level.

 

The amphitheatre is actually a bit away from the main part of the town hence we have to drive back - on the way we pass by the old harbour which today is just a part of the ruins but used to host a military installation - hence a few year back taking a photo of the old harbour would have gotten you a few years studying the inside of a Libyan jail cell.

 

At the entrance to the main sight we get a quick lunch - of course the prices is somewhat higher than the standard the usual 'Libyan prices but it is still relatively cheap compared to home.

 

Going in to the main city the first thing we meat is an intersection with the arch of Severius Septimus the local born emperor of Rome. His arch is at the main intersection in town and unusual for the time you could not drive through the arch - you had to drive around it - a very early roundabout.

 

After the arch from several sides - it is most impressive when you look at it from an angle and not straight towards it. We move on to the Hadrian Bath. In front of the baths is a small group of guard who are supposed to take care of the park. They are cooking lunch - they seem to be enjoying themselves. Just after we pass them we see lots of trash - the leftovers from their picnic lunch arrangement.

Our guide tells us loudly in English this is how the local guards take care of the old city - they just through their trash everywhere - unlike guards in Europe protecting the sights against tourist throwing trash it is the opposite way around in Libya. Then he starts to tell us about the Hadrian Bath. A few moments later the guards come towards us half way yelling at our guide - a heated discussion in Arabic starts between our guide and our tour leader on the one side and the guards on the other - we got no clue what is going on. Then the guide returns and tells us - well one of the guards actually speak English and were quite mad that he had told us the truth about them spreading their trash around the park. The guide had had to promise to tell us that of course they would clean up there mess after them - yeah like that were ever gonna happen.

 

Of we go down to the coast where there are three big old columns.

They were ship to the old town in ancient times from far far away. Then the French tried to move them to France back in the 19th century - but they could only get them to the beach - when they tried to move them onboard the boat they had to give up shipping them to France - hence now more than a hundred years later the three big columns still lay at the beach like a beach whale not able to get out on the sea - or back to the sight they were taken from.

 

Walking around town is interesting in many ways - it shows you how dedicated some of the old citizens of the town actually were in the ancient times. Several of the buildings got some sort of inscription saying something like "I xx build this with my own money". The leading citizens of the town wanted it to be the most amazing town in the world and they were ready to pay large amounts to do it.

One of the examples of this would be the big new market build by a single citizen of the town - and not by the authorities.

 

The tour ends at the big theatre of the town from where you can see most of the surrounding town. Then it is time to go back - but we pass the big intersection with the magnificent arch in honour of Septimus Severus and this time we can see it right up front and not from a distance as we did when we got into the town. Then it is back to Tripoli where we go to the old town for a farewell dinner as the tour of Libya is about to come to the end.