An Archaeological Study Tour

Libya: Ancient Cites & Prehistoric Art

October 1- 19, 2010

Led by Professor Elizabeth Fentress

Visas for American citizens have now been normalized!

Space is available for our 2010 tour!

Off-limits to most Americans since the mid-1980s and before that seldom visited by even professional archaeologists, Libya is home to a mesmerizing variety of archaeological cultures and remains that range from the Paleolithic to Byzantine times. The third largest of the African nations, most of its landmass is covered by that great “sea of sand” the Sahara Desert. Breathtakingly skillful late Pleistocene depictions, of long vanished fauna and the early Olocene pastoralists who hunted them, are found on the open-air rock shelters located deep in the desert. The native Berber Libyan peoples familiar to Herodotus and the Roman historians have left us vivid traces of their enigmatic religion and rural existence in remote sites like Slonta and Ghirza. In historical times coastal Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were occupied by waves of Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines. Today their artistic and artifactual remains are beautifully exhibited in the Museum of the Jamahiryia located in Tripoli’s Assai al-Hamra, or “Red Castle.” While most students and enthusiasts of Classical civilization may be familiar with Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Cyrene, if only by name, out-of-the-way places like Silin, Zliten, Te uchira, Ptolemais, Apollonia, Gasr Lebia and Al-Atrun will fascinate even the seasoned traveler.

Friday,Saturday, Day 1 & 2: TRIPOLI: Depart from New York on British Airways on Friday arriving into Tripoli on Saturday. We will transfer to the new Radisson Blu Hotel, centrally located near Green Square and the medieval walls of the old city. This evening we meet for an introductory lecture and dinner.
Meals: Dinner

Sunday, Day 3: TRIPOLI: Our city touring begins at the Jamahiriya Museum. Housed in the great citadel, this beautifully designed museum displays artifacts from the Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Islamic periods, as well as an excellent ethnographic collection on the upper floor. After lunch, our touring continues in the Medina, where we will visit some of the most interesting monuments, including the Naga Mosque, Tripoli’s oldest, and Gurgi Mosque, built in 1833 by a Georgian mamluk responsible for Tripoli’s fleet. Its unusual octagonal minaret is the tallest in the Medina. We will also visit some of the old homes, which have been converted to other uses, and examine the remnants of the original Roman settlement that once occupied this area.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Monday, Day 4: SUSA: This morning we take a short flight to Benghazi, the principal seaport of the region, known as Cyrenaica, and our gateway to the splendid ancient cities hugging the Mediterranean coast between here and Susa. Our first stop will be ancient Teucheira, one of the five cities of the Pentapolis. Founded in the late 7th century, it flourished as a commercial center until, as the last stronghold in Cyrenaica against the Arab-Muslim invasion, it fell to the troops of the Egyptian governor. After exploring the partially excavated site, we continue to Ptolemais, capital of the province of Libya Superior from the time of Diocletian until the mid-fifth century AD. Although the site has not been fully excavated, we will see important remains and a fine site museum. We then continue to Susa, where we will spend three nights at the Al-Manarah Hotel, situated just outside the gates of Apollonia.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Tuesday, Day 5: SUSA: Touring begins at Apollonia, first developed as a small port in the 7th century BC and expanded into a major port city in the 1st century BC. Although the port continued to be improved into Roman times, the growth of the city was hampered by the need to bring water in by aqueduct. We will examine the ancient cisterns, baths, sanctuaries and walls, as well as the Byzantine basilicas and palace before departing for the Byzantine churches at Ras al-Hilal and Latrun. After lunch, we will drive through some of the coast’s most spectacular scenery, visiting the prehistoric cave site Haua Fteah and the mysterious grotto Slonta, Libya’s only surviving cult site of the pre-Greek population.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Wednesday, Day 6: SUSA: This amazing day will be spent at Cyrene, one of the most spectacular ancient sites of North Africa and one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites we will visit on this tour. The city was founded in ca. 630 BC by settlers fleeing the political tension and limited resources on Thera. By the 5th century BC, Cyrene had great agricultural wealth and was a renowned cultural center, home to three famous scholars. The city’s eminence continued through the rule of the Ptolemies and Romans and until the Jewish revolt of AD 115-17, when the city was destroyed and went into decline in spite of the rebuilding program of Hadrian. Our day will be spent among the magnificent monuments and ongoing excavations of this marvelous site, including the rock-cut tombs of the city’s necropolis.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Thursday, Day 7: TRIPOLI: Our visit to Cyrenaica is completed at Gasr-el-Lebia, ancient Olbia. Here two early Christian basilicas were founded, both with wonderful mosaics. Those of the eastern basilica are so fine that they have been moved to a small museum, where they are well displayed. We then return to Benghazi for an evening flight to Tripoli. Radisson Blu Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast & dinner

Friday, Day 8: LA-KHOMS: How many of us have, while traveling in Egypt or Tunisia, dreamed of the day when we would see the magnificent ancient city Leptis Magna, just across the border in Libya? Finally realizing that dream, we will spend the entire day exploring the ancient streets and lavishly decorated buildings constructed during the reign of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. His use of the best builders and finest of materials from his Mediterranean domain preserved the exquisite workmanship and fine sculptures that adorned every building for us to enjoy centuries later. As we visit the extravagant bath complexes, markets, temples, theater, etc., we will marvel at the livability of this city and the perfection of its town planning. The day ends with a visit to the large site museum. We will spend this night at the Severus Hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

 
Saturday, Day 9: TRIPOLI: We will complete our touring with a visit to the harbor of the ancient city and the Villa Silin, a Byzantine villa set directly on the seashore. The well-preserved mosaic of this 20-room villa attests to the good life the elite enjoyed in the 2nd century AD. The next two nights will be spent at the Radisson BluHotel.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch
 
Sunday, Day 10: TRIPOLI: A short drive brings us to Sabratha, our last great Tripolitania city. Sabratha started as a Carthaginian trading post. It had an excellent natural harbor and was well positioned at the end of the trans-Saharan trade route. The city we will see was built under Marcus Aurelius after several earthquakes destroyed the Greek city, and rebuilt by the Byzantines after additional earthquakes took their toll on the Roman city. After visiting the remains of the ancient city and its remarkable 5,000-seat theater, we will return to Tripoli for an afternoon at leisure.
Meals: Breakfast & lunch

Monday, Day 11: GHADAMES: Our drive to Ghadames takes us through several villages interesting for their traditional Berber mud architecture and fortified granaries. This region, known as Jabal Nafusa, is famous for its spectacular arid landscapes. We shall make several stops along the way, including Nalut, where we will visit the town’s fortified granary, or ksour, which was the center of resistance against Ottoman control. We continue driving south, entering the Grand Erg Oriental, a 75,000-square-mile sand sea that extends from here into Tunisia and Algeria. We enter Ghadames’s labyrinth of narrow streets late in the day and go straight to the Dar Ghadames Hotel to rest from our journey.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Tuesday, Day 12: GHADAMES: Although Ghadames has long been an important caravan town, evidence exists of human occupation in the Paleolithic period, continuing through the Roman, Byzantine and the Muslim-Arab invasions of 667. Its importance for caravans and pilgrims en route to destinations as distant as Timbuktu continued until sea routes and the end of slave traffic turned Ghadames into a backwater. We will spend the day examining the town’s maze of interlocking buildings and courtyards. This evening we will drive out into the desert for sunset among the dunes, our first taste of the solitude and beauty of the Sahara, and, after dinner, attend a performance of traditional Ghadames dances.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Wednesday, Day 13: SABHA: Today’s full-day drive traverses the Libyan Desert to Sabha. En route we will cross the eastern edges of the Wadi Shatti, one of Libya’s three great wadis, and the Edeyen Ubari Sand Sea, which we will explore tomorrow. We will reach our hotel in Sabha at the end of the day and say farewell to our bus driver, as we will be using 4 X 4 Land Rovers for the next five days.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Thursday, Day 14: UBARI CAMP: The Fezzan has a great variety of desert features, from rocky plateaux to incredible sand dunes, lush green oases and huge sandstone massifs. Clinging to our seats, we begin our great adventure when we leave the tarmac and enter the Ubari Sand Sea. We will spend the day amid the extraordinary dunes, some reaching 70 meters, and oasis pools of this spectacular desert sea. The next four nights will be spent in comfortable tented camps positioned in two locations convenient for our touring and equipped with good facilities. Our first two nights will be spent in a beautiful setting surrounded by the enormous Ubari dunes. Come prepared for endless sunsets and starry nights.
Meals: Breakfast. Lunch & dinner

Friday, Day 15: UBARI CAMP: Expect a full day of driving to and from the Wadi Mattendush, where we will view a large area of over 4,000-year-old rock carvings. These beautifully carved representations of animals that are no longer found in North Africa include: elephants, giraffes, flocks of ostriches, hippopotami, buffalo and crocodiles, as well as hunters and dancers. The rewards of this site will make the long drive worthwhile.
Meals, Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Saturday, Day 16: AKAKUS: After visiting Germa, where touring includes the mud-brick ruins of the ancient city, the Archaeological Museum, a mausoleum that is thought to date back to Domitian’s reign (AD 81-96) and the pyramidal tombs known as the Royal Tombs of the Garamantes, we drive south into the Akakus. We enter a spectacularly beautiful area in the Akakus chain of mountains, driving on sandy wadi beds and through deep canyons to the Akakus Camp.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily

Sunday, Day 17: AKAKUS: The Akakus region’s art consists of both carvings and paintings. In terra-cotta, red and white, these fascinating paintings give us a vivid picture of life thousands of years ago. The scenes are quite narrative, depicting celebration, battle, hunting, worship and even an intimate scene of a woman arranging her hair. We will spend the full day driving in the sandy foothills of the Akakus, stopping frequently to view areas of rock art.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner daily

Monday, Day 18: TRIPOLI: Today we will retrace our journey, arriving into Sabha in time for dinner before we board our flight back to Tripoli and the Radisson Blu Hotel.
Meals: Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Tuesday, Day 19: TRIPOLI: After a morning at leisure, we board our British Airways flights home.
Meals: Breakfast
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Travelers who feel that the desert experience will be too strenuous may opt to return to Tripoli from Ghadames and depart for home early. These arrangements must be made at the time of booking. The tour rate will be adjusted to credit unused services.

This tour should be considered strenuous. It requires a great deal of walking over rough terrain. All participants are expected to be physically active and able to walk independently throughout our very full touring days. Libya is slowly developing a tourism infrastructure. This tour is not suitable for anyone who is unprepared for some hardships, schedule changes, delays, inexperienced service personnel and long rides over poor roads.The current Libyan hotel policy states that exact hotels might be confirmed less than a week before arrival. Archaeological Tours will do everything possible to maintain the integrity of our carefully planned program and our Libyan hosts will do everything they can to make us feel welcomed. A spirit of adventure will reward us with a wonderful and memorable experience.