Tripoli: Cyrene, Benghazi, the Garamantes, Ghadames, and the Complete Libyan Heritage
The wider Libyan world: Cyrene as the finest ancient Greek city in Africa and birthplace of Eratosthenes; the 2011 revolution that began in Benghazi; the Garamantes and their 3,500km of underground Saharan water tunnels; Ghadames as UNESCO Pearl of the Desert; Libyan cuisine from bazeen to mbakbaka; and the complete legacy of Libya as the world most significant unvisited heritage destination.
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Cyrene - The Ancient Greek City and the Birthplace of Eratosthenes
Cyrene (UNESCO World Heritage) is the best-preserved ancient Greek city in Africa, founded approximately 631 BCE by Greek colonists from the island of Thera (Santorini) on the instruction of the Delphic Oracle. Cyrene became the capital of the Greek Pentapolis (Five Cities) of Cyrenaica. Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c.276-194 BCE) was the librarian of the Alexandria Library and calculated the circumference of the Earth within approximately 2% accuracy using shadow angle measurements at noon on the summer solstice at Syene (Aswan) compared with Alexandria. The philosopher Aristippus of Cyrene (c.435-356 BCE) founded the Cyrenaic school of philosophy (the earliest hedonist school). The archaeological zone includes the Temple of Zeus (larger than the Parthenon), the Temple of Apollo, the Greek agora, the Roman forum, the Sanctuary of Demeter (one of the largest deposits of terracotta votives in the ancient Greek world), and the extensive necropolis. Apollonia (the ancient port of Cyrene, now Susah) has Byzantine churches, a Greek theatre, and submerged Roman harbour installations visible in the clear Mediterranean water. Both sites are essentially unvisited due to the ongoing Libyan civil conflict.
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Benghazi and the 2011 Revolution - The City That Started the Arab Spring in Libya
Benghazi (population approximately 650,000-900,000): the second city of Libya and the city where the 2011 revolution began. The Abu Salim prison massacre (June 28-29, 1996: approximately 1,200-1,270 prisoners were killed in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli in a single night on the orders of Gaddafi security chief Abdullah al-Senussi: one of the worst prison massacres in the world: the families were not informed of the deaths until the mid-2000s: the lawyer Fathi Terbil represented the families). The revolution (the first demonstrations began in Benghazi on February 15-17, 2011 when Terbil was arrested: by February 20 Benghazi had fallen to the revolutionary forces: the Gaddafi threatened assault on Benghazi in March 2011 (Gaddafi speech threatening to show no mercy and to go house to house in Benghazi) triggered the NATO intervention under UN Security Council Resolution 1973. The NATO campaign (March-October 2011: NATO air strikes supported the revolutionary forces: Tripoli fell August 20-28, 2011: Gaddafi was captured and killed near Sirte on October 20, 2011). Post-revolution Benghazi has been under the control of the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar (since 2014-2017 after fierce fighting against Ansar al-Sharia and other Islamist groups in the Battle of Benghazi 2014-2017).
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The Garamantes and the 3500km Underground Water System of the Libyan Sahara
The Garamantes (the ancient Berber people of the Libyan Fezzan) built an extraordinary underground irrigation system (foggaras) that sustained approximately 100,000 people in the hyperarid Sahara for approximately 1,500 years (approximately 1000 BCE to 700 CE). A foggara is an underground horizontal tunnel (qanat) that taps into subsurface fossil water: the Garamantian foggara network extended approximately 3,500 km of underground tunnels hand-dug through desert limestone: water emerged at the surface and irrigated date palms, cereals, and olives in the Fezzan oases. The Garamantes controlled the trans-Saharan trade routes between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean: they traded gold, slaves, exotic animals (giraffes, lions, leopards), ivory, and salt with the Roman Empire. The capital Garama (now Germa) in the Fezzan includes a walled city, a necropolis with pyramid tombs, and foggara traces. The Great Man-Made River (the GMMR project: constructed by Gaddafi 1984-2010: approximately 4,000 km of underground pipes transporting Nubian Sandstone Aquifer fossil water to the Mediterranean coast for agriculture: the largest irrigation project in the world by volume: a modern echo of the Garamantian foggara tradition, though unsustainable as fossil water cannot be replenished).
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Ghadames - The Pearl of the Desert and the UNESCO Oasis City
Ghadames (UNESCO World Heritage 1986): an oasis city near the triple border of Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia: one of the best-preserved pre-Saharan oasis towns in the world. The old city architecture (mudbrick walled city with the earliest structures dating approximately 7th-10th century CE: the extraordinary covered walkway system that creates a second-storey pedestrian city above street level: the upper level traditionally belonged to women while men used the ground-level streets: the ground floor for storage, middle floor for family living, upper level connecting to neighboring houses through covered passages): the falaj water system (traditional water distribution from the oasis spring through the date palm gardens): the palm groves (approximately 4,000 date palms irrigated by the falaj). The Ghadames Berber community (the Ghadames Berbers speak a Tamasheq variant (Ghadamsi) in addition to Arabic: one of the few North African Berber communities maintaining both language and distinctive architectural tradition intact). The access (approximately 650 km southwest of Tripoli by road or by Air Algerie/Air Libya flight to Ghadames when services operate: the border area security situation is variable due to proximity to the Tunisia-Algeria-Libya tri-border region: when conditions permit the old city is extraordinary and essentially unvisited).
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Libyan Cuisine - Bazeen, Asida, Mbakbaka, and the Desert Kitchen
Libyan cuisine: the Mediterranean-Saharan kitchen combining Berber-Amazigh foundations with Arab-Islamic spicing, Ottoman Turkish influences (from the Karamanli era), and Italian colonial additions. Bazeen (the Libyan national dish: a dense unleavened dough of barley flour and water formed into a dome shape and served with maraq (a lamb and vegetable stew with chickpeas, potatoes, and tomatoes spiced with cumin, coriander, and chili): eaten communally from one large platter). Asida (thick porridge of white flour or barley with honey and butter or with savory meat sauce: breakfast and comfort food). Mbakbaka (Tripolitanian pasta in spiced tomato and meat sauce: the clearest Italian colonial culinary legacy in Libyan food: the word derives from the Libyan slang for spaghetti). Shawarba (thick lamb and tomato soup with orzo: the primary Ramadan soup of Tripolitania). Harisa (Libyan sweet: semolina pudding with honey, not the North African chili paste). Dates (Libya Medjool and Deglet Nour dates from the Fezzan oases: a staple and hospitality gift). Spiced coffee (strong coffee with cardamom, cinnamon, and saffron served with dates: the traditional Libyan hospitality drink). The Italian legacy also includes the Tripoli cafe culture (espresso and cappuccino) and the use of pasta in Libyan home cooking, particularly in the coastal cities.
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Tripoli Legacy - Mediterranean Crossroads and the World Beneath the Desert Sand
Tripoli complete legacy: the Libyan capital as the southern anchor of the central Mediterranean and the gateway to the most extraordinary but inaccessible concentration of ancient civilization in the world. The geological frame (Libya is approximately 90% desert: beneath the hyperarid surface lies the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (one of the largest fossil water reserves in the world), the largest proven oil reserves in Africa (48 billion barrels), and a stratigraphic record of human civilization from the Neolithic Green Sahara through the Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, and modern periods). The Roman legacy (Leptis Magna and Sabratha are UNESCO World Heritage and among the best-preserved Roman cities in the world: together with Cyrene they form the finest concentration of Roman cities in Africa). The prehistoric legacy (the Tadrart Acacus rock art and the Wadi Mathendous crocodile engraving document 12,000 years of human life in the Sahara). The Islamic legacy (the Ghadames old city, the Tripoli medina, the Gurgi Mosque). The future (Libya has all prerequisites for one of the world great heritage tourism destinations: 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the finest Roman cities in Africa, prehistoric rock art, Mediterranean coastline, Saharan landscape, and extraordinary human history: the political resolution of the civil conflict is the single necessary condition for access to this extraordinary cultural inheritance).