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Libya, in North Africa has many areas of great interest to travelers

TRAVELS IN LIBYA You are on the Index or home page.

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This site covers four main trips around Libya, the first to Green Mountain otherwise known as Jabal Akdar; the second trip was to Leptis Magna; the third trip was to Sabratha and the fourth trip was to Eastern Libya. The early photographs, unless otherwise stated, were taken by Richard Blackett and myself. I scanned and compressed the photographs and in some cases, turned them into page backgrounds. If you wish to contact me E-mail alinlibya@hotmail.com for details of my website work, my writing, my CV and my work abroad.

Libya is in North Africa. Its western neighbours are Tunisia and Algeria. To the east are Sudan and Egypt. To the south are Niger and Chad. Its northern neighbours, over the Mediterranean, are Italy, Greece, Sicily and Crete.

During the period of the Lockerbie sanctions in the 1990s I traveled in and out of, and across Libya, entering and leaving on the Tripoli to Malta to ferry and sometimes traveling overland from Marsa El Brega in the Gulf of Sirte to the Tunisian border and then on to Djerba, Homer's fabled land of the Lotus eaters off the coast of Tunisia.

It was during one of these arduous overland journeys that I noticed out of the bus window, a silhouette of ancient Greek or Roman ruins, magnificently illuminated by the setting sun. It was just a fleeting glimpse of Sabratha, as the driver was, as ever, driving at a frighteningly fast speed. Sabratha,is 60 miles west of Tripoli. I had been unaware of Libya's ancient heritage and at the time had had no opportunity to visit or explore any of the historic sites. Seven years later in October 2002, when I had the chance, I traveled to the Green Mountain (Jabal Akdar) area of Libya. This area is 200 hundred miles east of Brega.

JOURNEY NUMBER ONE AUTUMN 2002

We went from Brega to Qasr Libia, Appolonia, Al Bayda, The Temple of Zeus, Cyrene, Geigab, Slontah, Tocra and then returned via Benghazi.

JOURNEY NUMBER TWO JANUARY 2003

A few months later in January 2003 my colleague Richard and I traveled to an ancient Roman settlement Leptis Magna, next to Khums, 60 miles east of Tripoli. On our way to Leptis Magna we visited a beautiful ancient Roman Villa, The Villa Seline and the Leptis Amphitheatre. We returned via Zliten and Misrata.

JOURNEY NUMBER THREE MARCH 2003

Then, a few months later, due to an enforced stop-over in Tripoli in March 2003, we had time to visit Sabratha, the ancient Roman settlement 60 miles west of Tripoli.

JOURNEY NUMBER FOUR AUTUMN 2003

Eight months later during Eid al Fitr we traveled in eastern Libya to the war graves of Tobruk, via Al Marj. The Tobruk trip also saw us in Al Birdi and in Derna. We also visited Rommel's bunker in Tobruk. The return journey from Derna to Benghazi took us through the eastern side of the green mountain calling in at Ras al Hilal, the Hawa Ftea cave and the Lathrun basilica. We also made a return visit to Susa once known as Appolonia; Shahat once known as Cyrene and the Temple of Zeus before finally arriving in Benghazi.

It is to the credit of the Libyan people and the government that these ancient ruins are preserved and that anybody can access them. In the UK monuments such as Stonehenge are controlled, access is expensive and very limited. The whole monument can only be viewed through an ugly chain- link fence. It is not unusual in some countries for any vestiges of pre-Islamic culture to be destroyed or kept secret. In Saudi such Christian historical monument are off limits and kept behind barbed wire and ancient pagan shrines have been destroyed. In Afghanistan the Taliban recently destroyed the hundred metre high Buddhas overlooking Lake Bandimir in the Bamyan province which I visited in 1975. I wept when I heard about the destruction of the giant Buddhas. Libya has some of the wonders of the world and I feel privileged to have seen them, indeed, clambered all over them.

In October 2002 we set off early on a cool autumn Saturday morning catching the company bus to Benghazi on our way to meet out driver who was to take us to our first step on the journey, the charming Qasir Libia...............

Allan McAlpine. Brega, Libya, North Africa. January 2003.

TRAVELS IN LIBYA You are on the Index or home page.

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You can navigate your way around this site by clicking on the buttons on the left.

Or you can click on the blue links at the bottom of each page which will take you to the next area visited.

You can also move backwards by clicking on the blue link at the top of each page which will take you back to the last place visited.

You can also move around fairly randomly by clicking on the blue links in the body of the text on each page.

Finally: you can hold the mouse cursor over the small images at the top of each page, see above, and a short message will appear. If you click on this message picture you will be taken to the place described.