Shifting Sands

Now that restrictions on travel to LIBYA have been lifted, adventurous Americans can explore this controversial, hardscrabble country’s expansive Roman ruins and exquisite mosaics—archaeological treasures that may only hint at what remains buried.

by laurie kahle

antiquities expert Yousef al-Khattali recently made an archaeo-

logical discovery at Villa Silin, about 55 miles from downtown Tripoli.The

late-first-century Roman villa overlooks the Mediterranean from a sandy

ridge just west of Leptis Magna, one of Libya’s five UNESCO World Her-

itage sites and among the best preserved cities of the ancient world.

In 1974, a storm surge washed away the beach that had entombed Villa

Silin for thousands of years, revealing a few roof tiles—a proverbial iceberg

tip. The ensuing excavation uncovered an architectural gem comprising 20

rooms, some decorated with elaborate mosaics of the highest order, those

known as emblema musivo to al-Khattali and other scholars. The scenes—

formed with tiny stones and depicting activities ranging from chariot races

at the nearby Leptis hippodrome to pygmies fighting crocodiles—are so

finely rendered that they resemble paintings. ➤ S M A I L L I W G T T O C S

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Compact yet powerful, the 50-year- fragment peeking from beneath its old bespectacled al-Khattali gesticu- concrete veil, a member of our group lates and jokes as he relays the villa’s comments, “So, the discovery here has history one warm, sunny afternoon been made solely by virtue of neglect.” last fall. He leads our group to an area Such is the paradox of modern near the home’s former gardens, Libya, where remnants of the ancient squats in front of a step where some world have slumbered in obscurity, concrete has cleaved away, and points with minimal efforts to protect or to a few painted brushstrokes depict- restore them, almost as if they were in ing what appears to be a bird’s tail a time capsule.The sprawling Roman plumage. The image, he explains, is city of Leptis Magna has been only part of a fresco that probably was partially excavated—primarily in the painted in the first century and then 1930s by archaeologists working for later covered with cement set with Italy, which governed Libya at the mosaic tiles—just as old wallpaper time.The train tracks they used to haul might be layered with more au away the detritus are still in place, courant designs. A hint of frustration along with what remains of the city’s tempers al-Khattali’s exuberance over from the ravages of sea, salt, and sun. baths, gymnasium, basilica, circus, two his discovery, for in his current role The destructive power of nature is forums, six triumphal arches, and an as a tour guide, he can do little to evident throughout the villa. Stripped amphitheater that was built in A.D. ensure that the fresco is properly of their preserving sand sarcophagus 56, during Nero’s reign. Some of the handled and preserved. However, he and reinforced with well-intentioned other limestone structures, including can warn his American charges, who but moisture-absorbing steel rods, the market, date to 8 B.C. A massive

are tempted to break away the many of the mosaics are beginning to earthquake in the middle of the W O L F

crumbling veneer of concrete, that it is degrade after only a few decades of fourth century ultimately toppled this G A N the only thing protecting the fresco exposure. While regarding the fresco cosmopolitan Roman capital. Leptis G K A E H L E Leptis Magna’s market (top) dates to 8 B.C.; a Medusa’s gaze is set in stone at the Severan Forum (above). R

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Magna is just one of Libya’s remark- more exotic destinations without his system’s pretense of advocating able Roman sites that Americans can sacrificing travelers’ comfort and forms of democracy, Qaddafi became visit, thanks to the recent years’ slowly security, TCS is a favorite among one of the world’s most notorious warming relations between the U.S. those who already have visited pop- dictators, and his country remains on and Libyan governments. Still, ex- ular tourist meccas. Many in our the U.S. State Department’s list of state ploring Libya independently can be group are repeat TCS travelers and sponsors of terrorism. daunting, despite the enthusiasm of seasoned world explorers who were In 1986, President Ronald Reagan the locals who are eager to share their drawn to this particular tour by the ordered the bombing of Qaddafi’s country’s cultural prizes. opportunity to set foot in the once- Tripoli compound and other targets forbidden territory of Libya. in retaliation for a Berlin discotheque TCS EXPEDITIONS of Seattle is among Following his 1969 coup, Col. blast that killed two U.S. soldiers.The the American tour operators that Muammar al-Qaddafi renamed the hostile relationship continued as Libya have added Tripoli to their itineraries, country the Great Socialist People’s harbored the Libyan terrorists who though many of those companies, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (state of the were convicted of the 1988 explosion including TCS, may have to cancel masses). He conceived Jamahiriya as an of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, future visits because of lengthy delays alternative government and economic Scotland. Libya suffered from increas- in American visa approvals in recent order that balanced aspects of com- ing political and economic isolation months. Known for trips that explore munism with capitalism. But despite until 1999, when Qaddafi handed over the bombers and made repara- tions to the victims’ families along with other accommodations that would allow his country to rejoin the international community. The United Nations lifted its sanctions in Septem- ber 2003, and that December, within a week of the apprehension of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Qaddafi stated that he would rid his country of weapons of mass destruction. In response, the United States renewed most trade and diplomatic relations with Libya in September 2004, seven months after removing travel restrictions for Amer- ican tourists, who can apply for visas through the Libyan People’s Bureau in Ottawa, Canada. (Libya does not have a consulate or embassy in the United States.) Jets bearing the logos of Swiss Air and Lufthansa sit parked at Tripoli airport as we unload from our private all-business-class Boeing 757.We have been warned that alcohol is strictly forbidden and will be confiscated, credit cards are virtually useless, and toilet paper is a rare find in public facilities. Smiling children wearing native costumes—boys in simple robes and girls in colorful ensembles with head-scarves—offer candy and charm

us with a photo op at passport control. W O L F

But outside the airport, the scene is G A N not as sweet. Plastic shopping bags, G K A E

bottles, tires, and other refuse clutter H L E The Arch of Septimius Severus (A.D. 203) honored the Roman emperor born in Leptis Magna. the roadsides. We are informed that R

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Leptis Magna’s massive Severan Basilica (completed in A.D. 216) features four elaborately carved marble pilasters.

garbage collection had been suspended place our bags on the X-ray belt and trade sanctions and corruption have so that the saved funds could be used walk through the metal detectors. exacted a toll on the Libyan economy. for housing and education. Asian and Italian businessmen discuss Today, Libya’s dusty roads and lack- The country has just celebrated the their deals over coffee instead of single- luster cement buildings represent a 36th anniversary of Qaddafi’s rule, and malt Scotch, and African families plan stark contrast to the glittering sky- throughout Tripoli there are billboards dinner in one of the hotel’s restau- scrapers and immaculate boulevards in depicting the self-proclaimed Leader rants—Italian, Asian, or Moroccan. the city of Dubai—an entity that cap- against a backdrop of heavenly rays, Were it not for the extreme security italized on its oil reserves—where our with a smile on his face and his hands measures and the lack of a bar, we group visited only a week before. clasped in victory.While the colonel could be in Houston. may remain the poster boy for Libyan The Corinthia’s soaring glass towers, OIL OF ANOTHER KIND—olive—drove defiance, he appears to have recognized located just outside the walls of the economy of Leptis Magna during that working with the West politically Tripoli’s old town, are a symbol of its Roman glory days in the second and economically can potentially Libya’s conservatively optimistic eco- and third centuries.At that time, olive strengthen his power domestically and nomic outlook. Libyans hope that the oil was one of the only fuels available abroad. Some speculate that his pro- country will prosper from trade and and was used for lamp oil, as well as democracy son, Seif al-Islam, who is tourism the way that it should have soap, perfume, and, of course, cook- believed to be his father’s successor, after the discovery of oil in 1959, ing. It was considered so precious is another influential force behind the when it became one of Africa’s wealth- that in 46 B.C., Julius Caesar ordered fledgling Libyan perestroika. iest nations. But the concentration of Leptis to pay a fine of 3 million Tripoli’s new Corinthia Bab Africa that wealth in the hands of a few is pounds of olive oil as punishment for

hotel could be viewed as Qaddafi’s what spurred Qaddafi’s socialist revo- sheltering Cato, the commander who W O L F

welcome mat to Western visitors. In lution. A subsequent so-called golden served Pompey,Caesar’s archrival. G A N the lobby of the country’s only five- era ushered in improvements in hous- In A.D. 109, Rome declared Leptis G K A E

star property,a pianist plays the Moody ing, education, and infrastructure for Magna a colony and granted its popu- H L E Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” as we the masses, but decades of punishing lation Roman citizenship rights. The R

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city’s prosperity and development colonized it. (The Italian government once adorned the Leptis site. The peaked when Leptis native son Sep- also oversaw the excavation of Sabra- Italian government gave the statue to timius Severus ruled the Roman tha, a less impressive Roman outpost Hermann Goering in 1939, but the Empire (A.D. 193–211). In his honor, regarded for its fine mosaics and piece was returned to Libya in 1999, the city built its most dramatic tri- restored amphitheater.) after it had surfaced in a private umphal arch. In the third and fourth Some of Libya’s most prized arti- German collection. Libya never will centuries, the city’s fortification walls facts have been relocated to Tripoli’s recover many of Leptis’ stolen relics, stretched almost two miles. Jamahiriya Museum. The castlelike including the hundreds of gigantic Today, archaeologists have excavated building is crowned with the mast of green marble and red granite columns only an estimated 30 percent of the the U.S. frigate Philadelphia, which that now stand at Windsor Castle, city, leaving one to ponder what trea- Tripolitanian pirates captured in Versailles, and Paris’ church of St. sures remain buried at Leptis. “The 1803. The museum’s galleries show- Germain-des-Prés. However, three ruins here are magnificent for their size case relics tracing the many cultures monumental green marble stragglers and preservation,” says Jack Daulton, that have ruled Libya over the mil- still sit entrenched on the beach at an expert in art and architecture and lennia. One room displays one of the Leptis. The French consul left them one of TCS’ lecturers. “There are also world’s finest examples of mosaic art, there at the turn of the 18th century, so few visitors here, which is very rare. a richly detailed first-century flora- because he could not find a barge Other comparable ancient sites, such as and-fauna scene that experts have strong enough to carry them to France. Ephesus, are crowded in comparison.” touted as being even finer than the Many of Libya’s more portable Although Leptis’ archaeological masterpieces of neighboring Tunisia. ancient treasures remain vulnerable to remains date only as far back as the A preceding gallery presents, with no such pilfering, and to decay. Until the Roman era, the Romans were not the intended irony, a more modern arti- country has the resources to protect first to recognize the value of Leptis fact: the light blue Volkswagen Beetle and restore its artifacts, such as the as a port city with a natural harbor. that the Leader drove while master- mosaics at Villa Silin,they are perhaps Phoenician merchants founded Leptis minding his revolution. best left where they have spent the last Magna about a thousand years B.C. Greeting visitors in the museum’s few thousand years: under the sand. In succession, Greeks, Carthaginians, entrance hall is a statue of a naked Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Venus, a second-century Roman rep- TCS Expeditions, 866.276.9077, Ottoman Turks, and Italians later lica of the Capitoline Aphrodite that www.tcs-expeditions.com Jet-Setters

LIBYA IS JUST ONE of the many Everything from passport control less-traveled destinations that Villa Silin to luggage handling is expedited define the itineraries of TCS so valuable time can be saved for Expeditions (866.276.9077, www exploration. Frequent TCS travelers .tcs-expeditions.com), a division of note the company’s attention to Grand Expeditions. The TCS travel details—from “surprises,” such as experience is perhaps most distin- concerts or dance performances, guished by the mode of trans- to small gifts, local currency, and portation: a chartered business-class prestamped postcards that are Boeing 757, which can touch down placed in hotel rooms. A doctor in remote and far-flung locales travels with the group to provide unhampered by commercial air schedules. The pace of a TCS medical assistance when needed, and TCS offers air medical tour is indeed brisk: Our Seven Seas Odyssey made 10 stops evacuations for emergencies. on multiple continents in three weeks. Despite their average Most TCS expeditions are built around a conceptual age of about 70, TCS travelers like to see and do as much as theme, and expert lecturers travel with the group, providing possible, so downtime is minimal. lessons in history, culture, architecture, and art to enhance The TCS staff has mastered the art of organization and the experience. Some upcoming expeditions include W O L

coordination, with advance teams that prepare for the Currents of Culture (fall 2006), which follows the Eastern F G A N

group’s arrival at each destination and collaborate with local Hemisphere’s most famed rivers, and Great Faiths (spring G K A

guides to deliver a smooth, high-quality experience. 2007), which explores religious capitals. —l.k. E H L E R

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