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.
