Ghadames

Monday, March 27
2:53 pm
Ghadames, Libya

Unlikely as it seemed at the outset, Ghadames just may be my favorite city so far. Reason #1: We've just returned to the hotel for a siesta, because the whole town shuts down until the evening to escape the afternoon heat. That's my kind of thinking.



The drive here yesterday from Tripoli was long, but not so arduous. To break up the journey, we made a couple of stops: an old granary and the little town of Nalut. Both had remarkably preserved and intricately constructed granaries, little storerooms built one on top of each other giving the overall effect of a giant anthill. Traditional Berber mud architecture, but it looked like a big sand dune with holes. I climbed up to peek inside the dark chambers, and some still contained amphoras, the large clay storage jars.


Qasr al-Haj


Nalut

The stretch of road between Nalut and Ghadames gave us our first real glimpse of the desert, the Grand Erg Oriental. These region is called the Jebel Nafusa. Rippling piles of sand, sun bleached plateaus, smatterings of palm trees around scant oases. And, several herds of stubborn camels crossing the road, stopping traffic. Watching a spooked camel gallop out of the way of a blaring horn never failed to amuse.


Mohammed leaving our hotel

We arrived in Ghadames at about 6:15 pm. The majority of the town shares the mudbrick architecture of the sites we saw en route. I've never really been to the southwest, but a number of people compared the two, especially the terrain. Our hotel just opened six months ago, part of The Colonel's directive to increase tourism. It's lovely here, not only clean and liveable (no saran wrap needed), but comfortable and architecturally interesting. Meant to mimic the style of the old city.



Which it does to a tee. This morning, after a visit to the Ghadames Museum and some requisite shopping, we walked through the labyrinth of covered mud brick walls and alleys that comprise the Old City. The entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site. No one lives there now (though it was inhabited until just two or three years ago by a woman who insisted she was born there, she was going to die there). But, the homes are still privately owned and it's used as a retreat from the summer heat. Outer walls are about a meter thick, 90% of the spaces are covered, with just a few slots for light, so it feels air-conditioned.


Courtyard at Ghadames

It's really a visually amazing place -- emphasis on maze. Benches are built right into and of the same mud brick as the walls along the "streets", as are the bed platforms and tables in our hotel. There are mosques, schools, and meeting places. Daily life was incredibly, almost shockingly segregated (as it still is today... had to check my principles at the door). Regarding publicspaces, only men are allowed at the mosques and in the meeting places; women are confined to the top floor and THE ROOF. (Except for designated times at the mosque, where I think I heard our guide say their main purpose was to clean.)



Our lunch was a surprise. Rather than stopping at restaurant as usual, we were led to a fully decorated traditional home, still in use (at least as a tourist stop), with carpets and pillows lining the floor, mirrors, baskets, tapestries and other handicraft adorning the walls right up to the ceiling.



We sat on the cushioned floor to eat, and our meal was brought out on large round silver trays with legs. Five to a tray. One of the local craft specialities are these brightly woven conical food covers, though they look more like little hats to me, so we got to see them in action. They're almost too pretty to use. Cousous and veggies (and lamb for the omnivores). It was so fantastic! One of the more "authentic" experiences yet.

Followed closely by my donning of the traditional Tuareg head scarf. I bought one at one of the many shops in the old city, thinking I'd give it to someone, but Salem (our security guy, pronounced "solemn", not like the cigarette) insisted on wrapping it up for me. It was kind of awesome, I'm digging the look. He was also wearing a scarf so we struck a pose for the cameras. I think all the old ladies in our group are crushing on him and his tight pants. He's becoming my homie on this trip, despite speaking about six words of English. Then the tables turned, and Libyans were taking pictures of ME. We ran into a group of teenage boys and all wanted their photo with me. Very cute. I would see them again later that evening.

As we wound our way through the districts of the old city, we'd pass a Japanese group every so often, filing past each other like opposing baseball teams exchanging forced pleasantries. I said konnichi wa and two ladies got all excited and held up the line.


Shoemaker in the shops

Then, at one of the many, many shopping stalls, we met a little boy named Mohammed, probably about two or three and the son of the craftsman. I got all Angelina Jolie and kind of wanted to take him home with me. The biggest brown eyes you've ever seen. Didn't make a sound, didn't move an inch. My kind of kid.

Now we are about to head out into the Sahara via 4x4 Jeeps to visit a haunted castle and watch the sunset. After that, it's dinner and a dance performance. I'm amped.

oh yes, the reason i'm here...

i forgot to tell you what we did yesterday. oops. luxury is blinding.


Leptis Magna theatre

the entire day was spent touring Leptis Magna, THE site of sites in Libya. it's phenomenal. magnificent. colossal. the city dates to the 7th century BC, but its heyday was the Roman period, during the reign of Augustus in the early ADs. at its peak, it was home to 80,000 people. it is by far the most complete ancient city we've visited, and it's only half excavated!



there are several intact arches, including the impressive reconstructed arch of septimius severus (a Roman emperor said to have been from Leptis). a grand theatre stretching three storeys high, with a killer view to the water. hadrianic baths which must have been an amazing structure in its day... giant outdoor swimming pool, cold baths (covered by a vaulted ceiling with turquoise and blue mosaics), warm baths, hot baths, changing area. wow, it's massive. and there were marble latrines! roman and punic marketplaces, with the ancient measuring devices still in place. and... a coliseum!


Leptis latrines


Coliseum view

close your eyes and you could picture battling gladiators, roaring crowds. it's dug right into the ground, so you approach it from above. just beside, between the coliseum and the sea, is the hippodrome, another site for races and contests. it was said that spectators would wander from one event to the other via a passageway between the two. of course, i was hellbent on finding it. i dropped down the cliffside into the hippodrome (of which not much remains), skirting some tricky rocks and sand, and meandered until i found the tunnel... which leads you straight out onto the field. it's soooooo neat. so neat. looking up at those seats, it's just immense. our whole group was still up on top, and i heard them shout, "there she is!" i yelled up, and my voice echoed throughout the whole stadium, which seats 16,000 people. they all snapped pics of me posing gladiator-style, so hopefully i'll get one or two. so neat.



then we went to the on-site museum, which had a lot of exquisite statues and mosaics they were wise to remove from the elements. however, the ridiculous highlight was the two-story triumphant portrait of Mr. Qaddafi himself in the lobby, greeting his people as they come through the door.



then we went to the icky hotel in nearby zliten and had yellow food for dinner. i watched a james bond flick and went to bed at 9:30.

zliten does have some pretty spots, however. see?



like i said before, tomorrow we ship off to the desert, which i am quite certain is not yet wired for internet. pretty sure my cellphone is going to be useless, too.

first stop is ghadames, an 8-hour drive to the southwest. it's a major desert trading post town, a stopping point for caravans. we get in pretty late, but still in time to catch a traditional dance performance. kinda amped for that. i bet it's beautiful.

from there we go... somewhere else whose name escapes me, but there's a hotel. it's after THAT that we pile into the 4x4 Jeeps and bounce over sand dunes til i vomit from motion sickness. four nights of camping out in "comfortable tents". i did get confirmation that there are beds, we're not actually sleeping on the ground. i'm getting really freaked out about the heat. it was hot at leptis, the hottest day so far, with bugs, and i was miserable. this will no doubt be worse.

one of the areas we're going to, the ubari, has the most stunning lakes rising from the sands. i can't wait to see those, hot and bugs be damned. and the acacus moutain region, which is right on the algerian border, also looks amazing. the famed prehistoric rock art, the main focus of our excursion down there, lives on the rock canvas.

this has been like three vacations in one. egypt seems like months ago now.

back to real time posting.. for now

Thursday, March 23 (I think..)
8:12 pm, Tripoli

I'm losing track of what day it is.

Tripoli has been FUN. Yesterday we got to explore the city, which was not only a welcome break from hiking over ruins all day, it meant a change of SHOES. Hello sandals!

We started off as a group at the Jamahiriya Museum, the national museum of Libya. First few floors are filled with archaeological artifacts found from throughout the country from way back when to not so long ago. It's a beautiful museum, very well arranged and displayed. But all of the labels are in Arabic... As is everything in Tripoli, and most of Libya. One of Qaddafi's edicts I suppose. Keep out the Western influence.


Qaddafi's VW bug



We had a guide through the archaeological floors, then we were left on our own. I wandered up to the top floor, history of the military and Libyan Resistance. Our guide insisted on coming with, and I see why. Gone were the loafing college kid museum guards. Up there, it's men in suits watching your every move. I was too self-conscious to take a photo. We were greeted by a gigantic photo of Qaddafi at the top of the stairs, then taken through the resistance against the Italian occupation and the rise of The Colonel. Helloooooo propaganda. There are two galleries devoted entirely to gifts given to the man. The next gallery is full of photos of him shaking hands with various world leaders and fan letters from his people (wish I could read Arabic...). Then there's the oil room. It was a little creepy, to be honest. Even creepier is that those galleries share the floor with the taxidermy, so in my attempt to flee the Libyan SS guards, I run into a gazelle being chewed by a coyote or something. No happy nature scenes here, folks. Our guide made a specific effort to point out the oddities case: two-headed cows, three-legged chicken, a sheep with no eyes. No thanks! Ran back to the lobby.

Then the fun began.



We wandered through the old city, where all the suqs and shops are located. Not as chaotic as the one bazaar we happened upon in Egypt, but this was primarily tourist stuff; that one was actual functional goods for everyday people. I finally got to flex my shopping muscles. Mohammad, one of our guides (actually, our only since Linda fired the other guy) came along with me to assist with the pricing... We tore through that joint. My arms were full in about 15 minutes. Still need to get some gifts for people though.



Tripoli is a lot more, eh, advanced than I expected. People here are much more stylish than in the rest of the country, and Egypt even. The clothing is much tighter. Women still wear headscarves, though not as much as in Egypt, and almost all are drenched in makeup. The catcalls have resumed. Maybe I should wrap my scarf around my head instead of my neck. Thinking about looking into a fake wedding ring, too. After touring today, we had the afternoon off. I hung out at home, as I've taken to calling our hotel, then went back to the suq on my own. (It's really close to the hotel.) Of course, everyone else in the group had the same idea so I strolled around with a few people once I got there.



Oh yeah, touring. The reason I'm here. We went to Sabratha this morning, one of the sites to see in Libya (the other being Leptis Magna, tomorrow's destination). It's another huge site, very well-preserved, right on the Mediterranean coast, as all of these sites are. The shining star of this spot is the theater, which has been impressively reconstructed. Three storeys tall, beautiful carvings and reliefs still in tact. The weather was once again amazing, so the beige stone really popped against the sea and the sky.




Wall mosaic at Sabratha

Now, I've just returned from my urban exploration. Thinking about taking a bath and ordering room service. Why not?? I'm getting a little sick of being around people, which is not to say that I want to go home (though I am counting down the days... 11 to go), I just want some alone time.

Tomorrow we drive east to Leptis Magna, where we'll be all day. It's far enough out that we're staying in a local hotel instead of coming back to the palace. Bummer. But we'll be back here the night after, which is the last night of the "official" tour before the extension into the Sahara begins. Some people will be going home. The rest of us will be heading south in 4x4s over the sand dunes.