Google Sightseeing » Libya

Leptis Magna

Ian Brown — Thu, 28 May 2009 21:43:48 +0000

The spectacular Leptis Magna is an exceptionally well-preserved Roman city on the coast of Libya which has a history dating back over 3,000 years. Today the archaeological site is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With a history dating back to 1100 BC, the city gained status as a leading part of the Roman Empire in AD 193 when Lucius Septimius Severus became the first African-born Emperor of Rome.

The baths at Leptis Magna

Although there are loads of ruins here, most of the prominent remains date from the first and second centuries, including the incredible theatre.

The theatre at Leptis Magna (ground-level photo)

Severus spent lavishly on new buildings for his home town as it developed into a major trading port, making sure he had an extensive market and a truly magnificent forum.

The market and forum at Leptis Magna

One of the major projects attempted during Severus’s reign was the redevelopment of the harbour, which was known for heavy silting. However, the changes just made the problem worse. Many of the quayside buildings are intact but rather annoyingly a strip of low-resolution imagery obscures the harbour.

However the good imagery returns further east, just in time for us to be able to see Leptis Magna’s wonderful amphitheatre – the location of amazing public spectacles, and the most prized symbol of Roman citizenship that a town could have.

The amphitheatre at Leptis Magna (ground-level photo)

The city eventually fell into decline in the fourth century when trade moved elsewhere, but thanks to Emperor Severus and his ebullient spending, there remains an absolute wealth of history for people to explore in his once splendid home town.

Wikipedia of course has lots of info, but I recommend that you visit the Temehu site for excellent pictures and background, with a more detailed history to be found at Livius.org. Also see an earlier post on Google Sightseeing about the city of Sabratha.

Locations: Libya / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings, Structures

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Ancient Roman City

James Turnbull — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 18:12:56 +0000

One of many ancient roman cities in West Tripoli, Libya features an impressive amphitheatre. Much of this city, which is just north of the Libyan Museum of ancient history, is still to be excavated.

Thanks: Mahmoud Swed

Locations: Libya / Categories: Buildings

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Leaky Ships

Alex Turnbull — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 22:29:24 +0000

This is the port of Tripoli in Libya, which appears to have a leaky tanker or two… Yuk!

Thanks to Twombly.

Locations: Libya / Categories: Watercraft

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Waw An Namus

Alex Turnbull — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 13:13:11 +0000

This is Waw an Namus, a 1200 metre extinct volcano in the Sahara desert, Libya. The volcano itself is surrounded by a huge area of deposited ash which stands out strikingly against the desert sands. Zoom in closer to see some spectacular colours.

You can really see which way the prevailing wind blows around here, huh?

A couple of hundred kilometres to the north you can see an absolutely vast basaltic lava flow field, known as Djebel Haroudj. If you take a broader look at the area, I think you can still make out the path the lava took from the volcano to it’s final destination.

I couldn’t find an entry for this in Wikipedia, but this page has some good stuff.

Thanks: Leonard Richardson, Mikhail, Adriaan Bos, Manny Mouse, Mike S, pfly and Lauri Kangas.

Locations: Libya / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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More Scotch Tape

Alex Turnbull — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:00:02 +0000

Remember our giant piece of Scotch Tape holding Canada together? Well our ever-helpful readers have since turned up several more pieces of this gargantuan sticky-tape…

Firstly we have this enormous length of tape, which is actually holding Ghana and Ivory Coast together. Not high-resolution on this one, but at the eastern end the tape fades out rather prettily into some lovely clouds.

Next up is this semi-transparent tape stitching a large section of the Libyan desert together. Notice how all of these anomalies run at very similar angles across the images?

Finally we have this shoddy looking job in Russia, which appears to have required two pieces of tape to get the job done! I think their mistake was trying to tape water together…

Thanks: Dave, Winterfresh, Alxdr, mcb, blumentopf and MoonFella.

Locations: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Libya, Russia / Categories: Weirdness

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The Richat Structure

Alex Turnbull — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:31:03 +0000

The Richat Structure in central Mauritania is a stunning geological structure 50 kilometers across (Wikipedia entry). Once thought to be an impact crater, it is actually a sedimentary formation that has eroded flat over many eons. Apparently there’s a hotel smack-bang in the middle of it.

There are also several other similar structures in the Sahara, such as the Jebel Uwaynat (thumbnail #2) which was used to define the borders of Sudan, Egypt and Libya, and also the Brandberg Intrusion in Namibia.

Even though none of these features are in high-resolution, it’s well worth zooming in a bit, as they’re perhaps even more fascinating to look at closer up.

Thanks to Pat Scaramuzza, Peter Nordstrom, GeMatt and Kai Huebner.

Locations: Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Namibia, Sudan / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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Desert Farming

Alex Turnbull — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:23:17 +0000

Check out these bizarre circles of farmland smack-bang in the middle of the Libyan desert. This unlikely-seeming sight has been made possible by the construction of the Great Man Made River, possibly the largest water transport system ever built, consisting of a network of pipes buried underground, each four meters in diameter. In the 1960s, efforts to find oil in southern Libya led to the discovery of huge quantities of fresh water underground, and today the Great Man Made River carries more than five million cubic metres of that water under the desert, vastly increasing the amount of arable land.

However, I’m told that apparently these sources of water (which were deposited in the ice age) are only likely to last between 50 and 100 years, yet the project is estimated to have cost 25 billion US dollars.

There’s lots more of these circles around to support this theory, but does anyone else think what they’re actually doing is trying to draw a picture of a giant dog?

Thanks to Tom Beddard, Stuart McGlashan, Steve Rot, pixiecrinkle, Mark and Phillip.

Locations: Libya / Categories: Deserts, Structures

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