Tunis

There is such a lot here to see; The amazing mosaics of the Bardo Museum; the cheesy Kasbah; the beauty of the wealthy suburbs painted all blue and white by law which were relentlessly cute. Then we went out to the cities around; each one with something unique to offer<;

Sabratha

Hottest day so far and site with the least cover. However best theatre ever. Tomorrow we leave at 4.30am for Tunis. The hotel has managed to lose my blue shirt in the wash but I will miss the computer in the room and the massage chair, even if the instuctions are in Japanese. No opportunities to really go shopping which is a shame

More Leptis

Leptis Magna

What can you say about Leptis Magna, it takes the cake. Only rivalled by something like Pompeii everything else dwindles by comparison. Gradually deserted as urbanisation failed it was preserved by being buried in the dunes. Much is still unexcavated.

Ptolemais and Apollonia

Ptoemais is very dry and was well supplied with cisterns in ancient times. The enormous govenors house supplied the museum with some interesting finds but much of what is there is from the Byzantine period.
Apollonia is, especially since Africa dropped two meters, by the sea. A Greek city it was the port for Cyrenia

Cyrenia

This town, a few miles inland on the top of the escarpment, has some incredible views and a divided heritage, also now a lot of gum trees. The hellenistic baths are still there beside the far more elaborate Roman ones. You can see us sitting in the separate hip type baths of the helenistic period.The temple of Zeus was rebuilt by the Romans but is still pretty impressive. They have a strange funerary cult with blank faced statues of Persephone

Tripoli

Fun today in Tripoli, we started by going to the museum which is in the Red Fort at the edge of the old town. with so many Roman cities they had a good collection. Gadaffi's car from the revolutionary days was there with Drusus and Germanicus, neither of whom I can remember seeing giant heads of before. There were excellent mosaics and then we went into the medina. Scattered around amidst more modern buildings were pieces of ancient roman architecture. We finished up at a very pretty mosque.