Monuments to visit Tripolitania

Leaving the Sévérienne basilica by the north, we follow a path that runs along the Byzantine wall to the Byzantine door. This wall wall was designed to protect the city from attacks by Berber tribes. The wall and door use stones from Roman buildings.

(An 12 Apr. ). Between Cardo and Theatre.

Leaving the south-east of the market, we lead to the path of the Cardo, with as a perspective the sober arc of Tiberius (35-36 apr. ) and then the arc de Trajan (109-110) in the second plan. The four-arch arch (tétrapyle) of Trajan, built in commemoration of the city's access to colony status, orne Libyan banknotes with a quarter of a dinar. The Trajan arc allowed traffic, unlike the arc De arc.

Between the two arches, one will note an engraved stone of an abundance horn, and a circle and a stick symbolizing the god Mercury.

The path you take at the entrance to the site leads to the right line with a view overlooking this fabulous arch, built in 203 apr. On the occasion of the visit of the emperor born in Leptis Magna in 146. The bow is located at the intersection of the two main tracks of the city, the Cardo maximus and the one which connected Tunisia (Carthage) to Alexandria. Raised from three large steps, the arc did not allow the passage of the tanks, which had to bypass the imposing monument.

This arc of 40 m in 40 has four entrances (tétrapyle arc) and three floors, for a height of about 20 m. It is entirely made of limestone, only its surface was covered with carved marble. Some marble ornamentations have been restored, including vine friezes. However, most of the original marble are at the Tripoli Museum. Thus winged victories on each side of the arcades and the great besieged on the four sides of the Attica (the summit of the arc on which statues were laid), which appear as August scenes of the life of the emperor and his family:

Continue straight and turn left at the Angle angle: Palaestra is located north of Hadrian's thermal baths. It was in this vast shaped stage divided by paved aisles that men were involved in physical exercises, such as struggle and race, before going to the baths. The palaestra is surrounded by about terrazzo columns in cipolin marble. During its construction, like the thermal baths in the 72nd century, columns supported the portico. Many of them were purchased from the Libyan tribes by French consul Claude Lemaire to be shipped to France in the th century.

These thermal baths are the only remains of a Roman villa. Left of the Punic Museum, slabs of geometric mosaics (th century) still decorate the soils of the atrium (entrance) and a frigidarium (cold bath) flanked by two swimming pools.

In front of the temple of Liber Pater is the location of the forum (th century), the nucleus of public life in Roman times, destroyed and restored in the fourth century, following the earthquake or attacks by Libyan tribes.

The giant amphitheatre (late 1st century) is almost km far away in south-east direction, and its remains may not be worth a détour detour. It could contain 10 000 people, for an area equivalent to two thirds of the Colosseum in Rome!

The fortified farms of Ghirza included the defensive military strategy of Rome in Africa, which was based on an instrument: . The limès was a defensive border that protected the shoreline romanisés territories in west, with its large cities such as Leptis Magna, Sabratha and Oea, against attacks by nomadic tribes.

However, no natural relief could be used to delimit this boundary. That is why, under the reign of Emperor Septime Harsh, it was dominated by a series of tracks punctuated by fortified farms (like Ghirza), where farmers were in fact former military personnel who were assigned to value-exempt land lots. Ghirza was the largest fortified farm centre of the tripolitain tripolitain.

This oven producing amphorae where olive oil was conserved magnificently crossed the centuries since it is still completely intact. It is also an astonishing size (6 m in diameter) which shows the magnitude of the commerce and oil trade in the region in the Roman era. Under a first geological layer of limestone, the region's land was ideal for the baked pottery industry. A mosaic of mosaics of a Roman villa of the th century. . was discovered not far (not visible).

With its 15 ha, the forest of Charchara, 3 km north of Tarhouna (turn right at the crossroad in the forest), is the ideal place for a picnic under pine trees. Many Libyans come there and relax in the family on Fridays from the fine days.

More than 500 m later, between the Porte gate (Byzantine era) and the arc of Marc Aurèle (173 Apr. ), head to the amazing roofs of the Domes thermal baths near the shore. These baths belonged to a wealthy owner. Long buried beneath the sands, they seem to be intact, and it is striking to contemplate this concrete edifice that has gone through history perfectly. Stroll through the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the caldarium, admiring their beautiful frescoes painted with nilotics scenes and arena scenes with gladiators and leopards.

You must admire the pavement of the mosaic of the tepidarium (warm room of Roman thermal Baths), on the seafront, where the central medallion of Neptune's head, the marine god, preserved at the Sabratha museum was extracted.

The obelisk is easily distinguished. He was housed in a residential area rejected in the southwest of Byzantine walls. This rich cave of sandstone shaped by the aiguille-Hellenistic era has been recovered by Italian archaeologists. Other mausoleums of this type have been discovered in Libya. It distinguishes a representation of the Phoenician god Bès, hunting the lions, as well as a representation of Hercules killing the lion of Nemea. The god Bès, a dwarf hunter of lions, was loved by the Phoenicians and Egyptians. As protector of the boats, he also became the protector of the dead.

By taking over the rue du Cardo, we will pass in front of the entrance door of Byzantine walls, which were rebuilt under Justinian using materials from older constructions such as the mausoleum of Bès.

In the Plaine plain, far from the city, you can visit it if you go to Yefren from Tripoli or the opposite. We do not know when this gigantic building was built or what its history was. But the site is magnificent and offers fantastic views over the vast plain. Greniers with provisions, of the same kind as the ghorfa of fortified greniers greniers are spread over three or four floors and in the basement, forming a gigantic large quadrilateral as a stadium. In all, more than 1 500 or 2 000 ghorfa were there! It would be a big caravanserai where traders would exchange, negotiate and store their goods. The central space leaves room for a huge market. But in the absence of research, the assumptions are reduced. The Ben Eran is the ben Ben Eran, behind the scenes of ghorfa, which have been restored more or less faithfully.

The site is animated by Tawfiq, who owns a tourist agency and is committed to valuing the site. If Tawfiq, who speaks English a bit, is visiting the stump, don't miss it. You can reach the stump through a staircase through the old, abandoned Berber village. Its agglutinées houses which climb up to the stump give a good overview of the ancient Berber habitat. They were glued to one another to ensure better defence in the event of a qasr attack, whose location at the top of the escarpment was already a guarantee of protection.

You will notice the vaulted floors of some houses, which served as a basket when the stump was no longer active. At random of the village visit, you will even find a cave attic, dug horizontally in the rock and supported by a palm trunk, with, at the entrance, a large jar with perfectly preserved olive oil. This type of attic had the disadvantage of being poorly ventilated. As for homes, when sons get married, one or two extra pieces were added around the yard to shelter new households. Near the road at the entrance to the old village is an old mill perfectly preserved with its two presses (see box).

In circular form, the stump, which was over 800 years old, consisted of approximately 230 small greniers spread over four to six storeys and a basement. Less well preserved than those of Nineveh el-Hajj and Nalout, it remains impressive. It has been serving since the 1930 s. At the center of the court is the small marabout of a pious man. We will notice the well-preserved jars of the basement greniers: the sand film that covers them is due to the oil that impregnated the pottery.

The thermal baths of the sea (th and th centuries). I.C.) are the largest in Sabratha. They still keep magnificent tiles with geometric motifs. Their marble hexagonal latrines are also very well preserved, which claimed the author Philip Yard: " It is likely that 90% of photographers visiting Sabratha take a picture of their families sitting on the seats of the latrines "!

This great th century mausoleum is the most impressive archaeological remnant in the Tarhouna region. This imposing monument testifies to the wealth of the Roman landowner who built it on his land. Only the first two floors are still on the ground, but the building has a third, whose stones and columns are scattered on the ground around the mausoleum. The two funeral houses are located in the basement behind a small entrance in the indentation of the building. The mausoleum is located on one of the slopes of the; (valley); valley, occupied by a few small farms, which has a source that is no longer permanent.

As you will see, the village of Bughilan contains many cave houses between the new houses (they can be seen even surprisingly well on the satellite map of the wikimapia website!), which often serves as pens for poultry when they are not simply abandoned. They were reportedly occupied until the 1980 s!

This large cave house has been beautifully decorated for sightseeing (there are even toilets outside). There is a large olive wood door, while the interior doors are in palm trees. In the vast entrance you can buy a few souvenirs (t-shirt souvenir, assiettes plates of Colonel Gaddafi). It was reduced to 10 m deep and would be more than 300 years old according to its owners. As usual, the pieces are divided around the square courtyard which was dug by a tank. Every room was decorated to understand how we lived there. Jars and other hanging pots come to decorate them. It housed eight families, each occupying a room, the beds being, in a typical way, a little raised in the bottom of the room. The families shared the kitchens. Notice a small sliding door in the courtyard: it was a basket where food was stored. Here, the cave houses hoch el-hafa and not damous as in Nalout, Yfren or Jadou are known.

After the visit, you should not miss sight of the panorama on the plain. It seems that in clear time we even see the large towers Sawari al-Imad in Tripoli!

It is possible to spend the night in the cave house, for 50 DL per person, evening meals and breakfast included. You can also take a meal if you order in advance (couscous, pasta or even bazin dishes, 20 DL per person)

Also called "new forum", to distinguish it from the "old forum" which structurait the public life of the Roman city before the reign of Septime Severe. Because the new forum is also part of the city's expansion under the latter's reign. By choosing its architecture and the luxury of its marble ornamentation, Septime Sévère wanted it to compete with the Rome Forum. The square of 100 m in 60 was dallée of marble and bordered by a portico with columns of cipolin supporting arches adorned with large medallions and heads of gorgonia and néréides. We must take the time to contemplate the different expressions of their fascinating marble faces. At the bottom of the forum, the collapsed temple was dedicated to the family of Septime Severe.

At the other end of the forum, against the wall adjoining the Sévérienne basilica, small pieces were used as shops and bars; they also served, at the architectural level, to hide the imperfect alignment (not really parallel) of the basilica terraced together with the forum.

The circus (112 apr. J Magna is one of the largest in the Roman world. It is 450 m long, 100 m wide and could accommodate up to 25 000 people. During the races, the tanks were élançaient for 7 laps. They were around a long (spina) wall with fountains in the centre of the track. The winning tank came out of a triumphal door. A mosaic of Villa Silin thus represents the exit of the circus of the winners of a race. The amphitheatre (56 apr. Pouvait could accommodate 15 000 people. We will note the small openings by which the Fauves were left in the arena.