Experience Libya With ROM Travel

Visit the world's best Roman ruins, enjoy local hospitality and vast deserts of beauty in March 2007
Explore the wonders of Libya, home to the finest Roman ruins in the world, with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this coming March 2007. Organized by ROMtravel, from March 15 to 29, 2007 let the Museum's experts be your guides on the unique trip, Treasures of Libya 2.

A country of startling contrasts, magnificent scenery, with some of the most interesting antiquities in the world, Libya has been closed to western tourism for decades, making its vast sites empty and extremely accessible. One of the last unspoilt countries on the Mediterranean Sea, this North African nation is teaming with outstanding classical ruins, bustling markets, fertile oases, cultural diversity, and breathtakingly beautiful deserts. And in March the countryside will be coloured with delicate spring wild flowers.

Throughout this 14-day tour, visit four UNESCO World Heritage Sites as well as some of the world's best-preserved cities of the Roman Empire (27 BC - AD 330). These vast cities were buried in sand for centuries after a series of earthquakes, and were not built on top of, the way many cities were in other countries, including Rome.

This remarkable journey begins in the gleaming metropolis of Tripoli, the largest city in Libya, with a focus on the country's Islamic, Ottoman and Italian colonial history. Tour the Jamahiriya Museum, containing the best collection of classical art in the Mediterranean world, and the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, commissioned in AD 163. Visit the ancient Roman city of Sabratha, buried in sand until archaeologists began excavation and reconstruction in the 1920s. The theatre with its columns, statuary and bas-relief is enormously impressive.

Perhaps the most spectacular of the many stops is the city of Leptis Magna, second only to Rome in importance during the ancient Roman Empire. Visitors can actually see what it was like to live in an ancient Roman metropolis. The city contains numerous outstanding structures on a vast site, including the marble-covered Arch of Septimius Severus, erected in AD 203, and the Hadrianic Baths, built in AD 123.

Cyrenaica, on the northeastern coast of Libya, with its fertile green hills sloping gently into the Mediterranean Sea, contains a wealth of Greek and Byzantine buildings, mosaics, frescoes and museums in towns such as Tolmeita, Qasr Libya, Cyrene, Apollonia and Benghazi. Then drive south to the desert where you will dine in a Berber troglodyte (underground) house where the indigenous culture of Libya can be experienced and appreciated; in the Jebel Nafusa (Western Mountains) visit an abandoned stone Berber village perched precariously on a rocky outcrop with an awe-inspiring view of the surrounding area.

Traveling on a road often shared with stray camels and sand dunes, the oasis of Ghadames, the "jewel of the Sahara", awaits. A city of sun-dried mud brick houses, braced with the trunks of palm trees, Ghadames borders both Algeria and Tunisia. Weather permitting, visitors will enjoy a beautiful desert sunset. Then it's back to Tripoli for a farewell dinner. On the way visit Nalut, the regional centre of Jebel Nafusa, to look at an exceptional 700-year-old fortified granary.

Visitors will have an opportunity to extend their trip and spend time in Rome, exploring ancient sites and learning how they connect to those in Libya -- a wonderful addition to a unique and exciting trip to Libya.
Dr. Ed Keall, Curator Emeritus, World Cultures Department, at the Royal Ontario Museum, will accompany both the Libya tour and the Rome extension. "Because it is no longer off-limits, this is a glorious opportunity to explore a country with a rich past," says Dr. Keall, who has excavated extensively in the Middle East. "The tour will include visits to some of the best-preserved ruins of Roman cities in the entire Mediterranean area."

The cost of Treasures of Libya 2 is $7,428 Cdn. (taxes included), the Rome extension is an additional $1,506 Cdn. (taxes included); both are open to ROM Members only.

By www.rom.on.ca