We travelled from Tripoli to Leptis
magna.htm but
en route called first at the Villa Siline
and the Leptis Amphitheatre.
The Villa
Siline is near the small town of Khums about 110 km east of Tripoli,
the capital of Libya. The land at this time of the year is verdant from the rains
but the full range of meadow flowers were not beginning to bloom
yet. The main kinds
of trees include, fruit trees such as orange, almond and apricot
and of course palm trees and olive trees. There
are mimosa trees which blossom in March, Acacias, Tamarisk, Eucalyptus
and Cypress trees. The
honey and fruit which these trees generate is often sold in road-side
stalls. There is
a wide range of tiny delicate flowers and semi succulent plants
that include cyclamens, crocus, colocynth, a succulent ground
spreading plant with small yellow flowers, and a form of helianthus
around which, in spring if the weather has been wet enough, white
desert truffles grow. There are also beautiful exotic teasels,
grasses and thistles. To
get the benefit of these plants one really needs to travel no
later than May, after which the searing sun leaves only a few
special shrubs and succulents growing. We checked out a
nice hotel, Al Funduq Naggaza set in meadow lands
and glades of woods, but decided it was too far from Khums and Leptis so decided to press on.
Our first stop, The Villa Siline, is on the coast a few miles
before Leptis.
It was difficult to find and we got lost and took a few false
trials and went off road. I think around this time the driver
began to have his doubts about me and Richard. Richard is
a demanding passenger who never stops talking to the driver and
maddeningly maintains eye contact so the driver is not paying
full attention to the road which I find very stressful.
We got out of the car as it bumped and groaned over the rough
I mean to say: no car owner likes that noise as the the sump or
the exhaust drags across rocks and boulders. Although we
were lost we stopped and surveyed this pleasant escarpment where
meadow lands rolled into the sea and skylarks swooped and sang.
We continued on and eventually found the Villa.
Although it was closed the kindly curator let us in so
we didn't have to climb through a hole in the
fence.
This
splendid villa right on the coast overlooking Sicily in the distance
was built in 200AD and houses a remarkable collection of detailed
mosaics that are notable not just for their state of preservation
but for their visual content.
The excellent condition of the villa and its contents can
be attributed to the fact that for nearly seventeen hundreds years
it was buried in dry sand and not discovered until strong winds
blew the sand away and revealed it in the 1970's.
This villa with about twenty rooms including baths,
library, and dining room overlooking the sea must have belonged
in its day to an important Roman but who exactly remains unclear.
The
graphically violent mosaics seem to be a pictorial narrative of
myth, spectacle and entertainment.
There are birds with fearsome sharp beaks poking at the
eyes of midgets carrying swords.
There are chariot races and water nymphs, mermen and crocodiles
fighting with small human figures.
These are all the elements of slaughter and bloodthirsty
combat typical of contemporaneous Roman public entertainment.The tiny mosaics give great detail.
|
