The great draw of Libya is of course Leptis Magna, a couple of hours to the east of Tripoli, set between the desert and the sea.
The “City of White Shadows” as it was known by the Berbers (for the white columns half buried in the sands), is as big and magnificent a Roman city as you’re ever going to see. It was destroyed in that earthquake of 365, but what remains, with its great harbour, its lighthouse, imperial baths, triumphal arches and streets, fills you with the glory of Rome - although one should remember that the cities of North Africa, though built under the Pax Romana, and in the Roman style, were constructed and inhabited by North African peoples.
The Romans, of course, were big wine drinkers… but also eaters of fish, attested to by the magnificent representations of fish in the mosaics. These mosaics, in restored villas on the coast and in the city’s museum, are reckoned to be as good as mosaics ever got, with their fine detail (some tesselae are just a millimetre square) and exquisite colouring. Curiously enough the eating of fish was another habit that went the way of the wine with the fall of Rome. The people of North Africa, being from the deserts, turned their back on the sea and its harvest, and the business of fishing only really restarted in the nineteen sixties. Even today fish is considered to be poor food; people would much rather eat camel and sheep meat. Having said this, the best place to eat in Tripoli is out on the beach at el Khofre, a little fish market where you buy your fish, squid or prawns, then take them in a bag to the charcoal grills. Here they dress them with cumin and paprika to your taste. You sit in a beach shack made from palm fronds and sip a crisp fruity tin of fizz as you await the arrival of your perfectly cooked feast.
