Route through LIBYA. Covered 1900km on the motorcycles.

Oct. 18, 2007. After completing the border formalities we head from Ras Jedir to SABRATHA.

It is located only a 100km from the border.

Sabratha is an ancient Roman City.

Most famous for its very impressive Roman Theatre and ...

and awesome view toward the sea.

The stage is one of the best preserved we have seen.

Only the theatre in Aspendos, Turkey is better preserved.

Sabratha was the westernmost of the three (3) cities of Tripolis.

In 1982 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Sabratha's port was built around 500BC.

It was romanized and rebuilt in 2nd and 3rd Century AD.

Detail sculptures at the base of the stage.

The ancient Roman city was heavily damaged in the 4th century AD.

Mike stands in the centre of the stage for scale.

An example of heated floors in the baths.

Mosaics.

We were suprised to see additional Roman excavations beside the theatre.

Sabratha has temples dedicated to Liber Pater, Serapis and Isis.

We continue to explore temples, roman baths and ancient roman roads.

A view of how close the ocean comes to the site.

Libya's advantage is the small amount of Tourists, which allows for a quite and peaceful exploration of the sites.

The Seaward Baths.

The marble toilets.

Mike checks out the bathroom.

Overview of the site and the many Roman dwellings and temples.

A large capitol looking lost.

Recent rains make for great picture opportunities for reflections.

Another overall view of Sabratha.

We met Hanno and Ann from Belgium at the border as we entered Libya.

Staying at a "so called Campground" just a few hundred meters from Sabratha. In the evening the Belgians and us exchange information between our laptops. Technology.

Oct. 19, 2007. From Sabratha we ride to LEPTIS MAGNA...

The sister town of Sabratha.

The Arch of Septimus Severus has been beautifully restored.

The Roman city was originally founded by the Phoenician in the 10 Century BC...

... and then eventually became part of the Roman empire around 200BC.

A Roman Milestone.

Carvings depicting Septimus Severus inside the arch.

The Arch was a major through way and a Roman Road leading in four directions.

Markings at corner intersections.

Roman Road leading up to the Arch of Septimus Severus.

The Roman Hadrianic Baths area is enormous.

A doorway that is slanted going into the Roman Bath area.

Part of the frigidarium.

Oven to heat the steam rooms.

Steam/air from the hot room were channelled through pipes in the wall to other rooms in the baths.

More examples of heating ducts and floor mosaics, with floor heating.

Communal male toilets, the key design differs from male to female toilets...

...an example of a mistake in the location of the key. Mistakes are not often seen.

The Fountain.

Inside the new Forum.

The new forum is gigantic.

Both the Forum and Basilica have huge piles of pillar fragments and other assortment of pieces,...

... pillars are made out of granite from Egypt and marble from Italy.

The colonnaded arches that surrounded the Forum were ...

...joined by the head of Medusa and ...

...her sister.

Small shops lined the outside of the Forum.

To appreciate the Basilica's enormous size, we got to climb up the hidden stairs to behind the Altar...

The Basilica is adjacent to the new Forum.

Square pillars in the Basilica depict Hercules.

Standing at the centre of the Basilica.

Winged Griffins at the capitol of the pillars in the Basilica.

These square pillars are depicting grapes.

A closer detail of the depictions.

The old Forum. Pieces are sorted for future restoration.

Ruby plays this game with the guide and actually wins the game.

The old harbour seen from the former lighthouse...

... mostly been reclaimed by silt and sand. Here is were ships would dock...

... and enter the Roman city.

Marble Columns

A very long Roman road.

The Market...

...where everything from produces, fish to clothes were sold.

Measuring device for Liguids.

Measuring device for dry goods.

Template for measuring the length of a sleeves for designing clothes.

Columns to the north of the theatre.

Carving on the wall to defend from evil.

The theatre.

The stage.

Seating area of the theatre.

Ruby takes in the view from the top seating of the theatre.

Imp. Ceasar inscriptions.

Oct. 20, 2007. Our "campsite" at Leptis Magna and taking down the tent in the rain.

Saying Good-bye to our Belgian friends Hanno & Ann with their Toyota Landcruiser...

... we hope to hook up sometime again as we travel south through Africa.

This amphitheatre lies a km north of the Leptis Magna site...

... and could seat up to 16,000 spectators.

The seating area and interior galleries are well restored.

We were able to walk inside these corridors ...

... for almost the entire circumference of the theatre.

At first it seemed that the amphitheatre was carved out of the side of the hill, ...

...but the northern portion of the theatre is free standing and adjoins to the circus.

The circus is easily missed, as it stands in ruins. It is 450m long and it main purpose used to be chariot races.

As the rain stops a perfect complete rainbow forms over the theatre...

... and the sun tries to peek through the clouds.

We actually ride 900km from Leptis Magna to Benghazi, including three (3) hours in the dark.

Oct. 21, 2007. We take a stroll to the beach in Benghazi.

We spent most of the day waiting for our passport to receive the registration stamp and continue in the afternoon to Cyrene.

Oct. 22, 2007. We park the motorcycles at the lower entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage Site - CYRENE.

Cyrene is situated on the side of a hill and is similar in layout to Delphi in Greece.

The ancient Greek city was founded around 600BC.

Fountain.

Sculpture of a Lion by the Fountain.

Temple of Apollo.

View of the Roman Temple 2nd Century AD.

Looking up the stair from the Temple of Apollo.

Cisterns.

View over the lower part of the Cyrene site.

Standing at the top of the theatre and looking out to the sea.

Originally a Greek Theatre built in 6th Century BC.

Rebuilt in 2nd Century AD by the Romans.

Evidence of rebuilding seen here.

View of the Temple of Apollo.

At the upper level of the Cyrene site remains of a large Forum.

Detail on the Navy Monument.

Temple of Demeter - Hellenistic Age.

Ruby's head gives scale to the size of the sculpure.

Remains of another temple.

Greek Inscriptions.

Detail of Greek Inscriptions.

Greek Road.

Marble Mosaics.

Closer view of the colorful mosaics.

This beautiful, well preserved mosaic is protected under a roof...

... others are open to the environment.

Stone wall with Greek sculptures.

Numerous sculpures line the wall.

Close up view of one of the Greek figures.

The odeon.

Entrance to the Stoa of Hermes and Hercules.

View of the inside with its many intact columns.

Gymnasium Hellenistic - 2nd Century BC and rebuilt as a Roman Forum - 1st Century AD.

Basilica beside the Forum.

Another small theatre.

Well restored.

A third theatre yet to be restored.

Walking towards the lower portion of the site, past the Greek Baths.

Entrances to the Greek Baths.

Hellenistic Age.

Inside the Greek Baths.

We had not encountered anything like this before.

Lots of examples of Roman Baths remain, but this was our first Greek Bath.

Mike sits in one of the stalls, which must be used for bathing.

There were numerous baths cut into the rock.

Covered water channel to supply the baths.

Our Libyan Licence Plates.

Mike's had seen better days.

Past Cyrene riding toward the coast and Apollonia, the road is lined with rock-cut tombs on either side.

The ancient Greek tombs are spread over the entire hillside south of the main Cyrene site.

The necropolis cover approx. 10 square kms and some represent the shape of Mausoleums.

The inside one of the tombs mostly look like this with small squares cut out of the rock.

Each slot was a burial place.

Graves from Greek period (500BC) to Byzantine period (600AD).

There is 100's of these tombs.

The rock-cut tombs on the side of the road that represent temples.

Looking east, another hillside covered with graves.

All of the tombs we explored were empty.

Approx. 20km from Cyrene, directly on the coast lies APOLLONIA...

... the ancient Greek Harbour city for Cyrene. Note the crosses carved into the columns.

Mike takes a rest on an ancient column.

The Byzantine Duke's Palace.

Showing the close proximity of the ocean to the site.

We find this staircase leading us to ...

... the old cisterns.

This one had three separate cisterns...

... a great place to hang out away from the heat.

The remains of another Byzantine church, formally probably a Greek temple.

Mosaics found in the Baths.

Marble covers the sides and floors of the baths.

More mosaics peek through.

Large pieces of columns.

Part of the harbour.

The Greek Theatre....

... cut out of the side of this hill.

View of the theatre from the beach.

Apollonia is partially submerged...

... waves bring to shore pieces of ancient artificats (columns, etc).

During calm sea this would be a divers paradise to explore what lies submerged of the ancient city.

Buying bread at the bakery...

... fresh from the oven to the client.

This bread was very good.

We stayed for free at this Appolo Tourist Resort.

The owner of the Resort gave us this unfurnished room to camp out in, as a huge storm moved over the area.

The staff, owner and our escort standing at the Resort.

Oct. 23, 2007. West of Tobruk a huge War cemetery memorializing ....

... the fallen soldiers of Britain, Australia and New Zealand in WWII.

It is beautifully kept.

For our last night in Libya we take a hotel on the outskirts of Tobruk. Both Adel and Munir, our tourist escort try out the motorcycles.

Behind the motorcycles is Munir's tourist escort vehicle, a Toyota 2-door Compact car.

As the sun sets we take a drive to the German War Cemetery in Tobruk.

This fortress look-like cemetery remembers the fallen German soldiers in WWII.

Between 1951 to 1953, 98% of the German soldiers who died in the Libyan Desert were....

... excavated from these battle grounds and laid to rest here.

Germany remembers all the soldiers who died at sea and in the air and could not be laid to rest in their home country.

There are 6026 fallen soldiers laid to rest and the names are listed...

... on these walls. There are two (2) Altmann's shown.

Climbing to the top and overlooking the Cemetery.

Check out the shoes on these kids...

... must be from Mom and Dad, who are the caretakers of this War Cemetery. This is our last day in Libya.