Over the last couple of weeks I have been avidly watching The Long Way Down – the TV documentary which follows Obi Wan (aka Ewan McGregor) and Charley Boorman as they ride motorcycles from John O’Groats (the northernmost point of the UK) all the way down through Africa to Cape Town.
I was enthralled by their proposed route – mainly because a number of the countries they were to travel through are not on the usual tourist route – Libya being top of the list. Sanctions, unrest and the refusal of Libya to accept tourists from the USA has meant that tourist numbers remain painfully low – 149,000 tourists visiting in 2004.
But things are slowly changing. Whilst the Long Way Down crew had to leave the American members of their crew behind, they were allowed into Libya and what they found must be one of the best kept historical tourist secrets. Leptis Magna was a prominent city of the Roman Empire and is found 130km east of Tripoli. Thanks to the dry climate (and perhaps the lack of tourists) it is one of the best-preserved examples of a Roman City and as you can see from photographs of the site it is amazing!