Libya

sucksssssssssssssssssss

I love Libya

Its a perfectly preserved World Heritage site

The city appears to have been founded by Phoenician colonists sometime around 1100 BC, although it didn’t achieve prominence until Carthage became a major power in the Mediterranean Sea in the 4th century BC. It nominally remained part of Carthage’s dominions until the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, and then became part of the Roman Republic, although from about 200 BC onward it was for all intents and purposes an independent city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptis_Magna

Had a number of practical problems during my one-week tour with a French-speaking group: missing visa document, leading to delay and additional expense; mad guide (Hassan); paid-for hotel in Tripoli requisitioned by the State – but I enjoyed my stay and the Greek and Roman ruins enormously. One day I’ll go back, to visit the desert…

For information on, and images of, the Fezzan, in south-west Libya, have a look at these sites, which focus on archaeology:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fezzan/
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/Fezzan/fezzan_home.html

LYBIA IS OK! I HAVE BEEEN HERE DURING THE WAR SO ITS OK

Re-booked for 8 April 2006 – third time lucky, I hope!

I want to see the Roman ruins at Leptis Magna and the Greek ones at Cyrene, and also my father was among the last British teenagers to do military service, which he did in Tripoli, I think in 1948/9, prior to Libya’s independence. I was supposed to be going last Christmas but at that time it was still necessary to get a visa before departure and have passports translated into Arabic, and I left it too late to do that (now it’s possible to get the visa on arrival and they’ve dropped the translation requirement). This year I booked in August for departure on 24 Dec., flights from my city being on Saturdays. And then on 24 Nov. they informed me the trip was cancelled. After trying and failing to find another for which there was still room on a flight, including via London or Zurich, I have ended up going to – Madeira! Well I am looking forward to it even if it doesn’t increase my “country” score!

Spent a little time in Ghadames and Tripoli. The old city of Ghadames is a World Heritage site and is beautiful, right on the edge of the Sahara desert. Then drove from Ghadames back to Tripoli through some of the most impressive bits of scenery I have seen. I described it as beautiful to a colleague who disagreed, I suppose twelve months on beautiful is not quite the right adjective. Stunning, rugged, breathtaking, moving, and inspiring apply, but beautiful is perhaps a little too soft for such a earthy place.

Highly recommend it as an experience.

I lived in Libya for three years as a child. I have fond memories of terrific beaches and roman ruins on the coast. We visited a place that had been used as a prison, where the prisoners painted enormous murals using blood. I wish I knew more about that place, as I haven’t found it mentioned on the Internet or in any guidebooks.