Libya 2004

Libya was an Italian colony from 1911 until after WWII. In 1952 they got their independence and a king from neighboring Algeria. In 1959, when Americans from Texas discovered oil, Libya was one of the poorest countries in the world with an annual income of just $25 per person. In 1969, Colonel Gaddafi staged a coup becoming the first Libyan to rule since the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus in 211 AD. He remains in power and is generally referred to as The Leader.

In 2003 five days after Saddam Hussein was captured, Gaddafi decided to end his long isolation. He gave up his nuclear weapons program and turned over the material to the US Government, who he had been in negotiations with since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. In 2004, for the first time in 28 years, American tourists are able to visit Libya. Libyans are very happy to see us because we are harbingers of better times. They told us the rumor about the the US Embassy location. Clicking on the Lonely Plant map accesses their site.

The photo shows the UTS group of 5 highly traveled tourists in Tripoli in front of Hadrian's Arch. Herbert Goebels, the UTS tour director, and our local Libyan guide are right of center. I was with this group in Tunisia and Algeria. As standard operating procedure, we were also accompanied by a security man while in Libya.

Libya has 5 million people and half of them live in Tripoli, which is very clean; but the rest of the country has a lot of trash. There are a million guest workers from Egypt and another half a million from other African countries. The oil wealth makes it possible for Libya to import workers to do jobs that Libyans don't want to do. I learned that Arabs in other north African countries viewed the Libyans as lazy. Like Saudi Arabia, Libya enforces the Muslim prohibition against alcohol. No wine with your dinner in Libya.

Libya was a chance for me to relearn the Arabic alphabet and to learn more about Islam. Islam means submission to the will of God. For example, Muslim men are not allowed to stand while urinating. Since God gave his laws in Arabic, all prayer must be in Classical Arabic regardless of your native language. Prayer is five times per day and the times are set. The photo shows the times posted on the wall of a mosque. If you are without a watch, you can determine prayer time according to the definition in the table. You must face Mecca while you pray. Some prayers are said out loud and others silently. Prayers have a fixed beginning and the variable part is the repeating of a set number of suras (chapters) of the Koran. If you don't have a sura memorized, you can follow the leader in the Mosque. I did not yet learn the bowing rules during prayer.

Libya has wonderful Roman ruins in Sabratha and some of the best Roman ruins anywhere in Leptis Magna, a city that rivaled Rome in beauty. The Greek (and Roman) ruins in Cyrene are also not to be missed. We flew to Benghazi, the second city of Libya, and then spent several hours on a bus to see them. Most of the ruins were caused by the great earthquake of 365 AD. I don't know the facts, but I would guess that the 30 seconds of the quake destroyed over a 100 years worth of construction. Then there was the tsunami that followed which killed thousands in Alexandria, Egypt alone. The quake of 365 AD was a factor in the decline of the Roman Empire.

Since I took a lot of video, I don't have photos of the famous baths of Leptis Magna nor a photo of the amphitheater that held 16,000 people.