Tripolitania (Libya Archaeological Guides)

We were recommended to read this book during a recent visit to Libya. It is not a guide book but it is an excellent guide to the history and ruins in Tripoli and the surrounding area. It gives much more information than the typical local guide at the main sites and will add a great deal of background detail to the undoubted pleasure of a visit to Leptis Magna or Sabratha. I wish I had known about this before our visit.

I ordered this for my husband as we had spent many, many years in this part of the world. Detailed descriptions of archaeological sites and some good photos.

This book is the first in a series about archaeological sites in Libya. The present volume covers Tripolitania, the western part of the country. The second volume,  Cyrenaica , will cover the eastern part of the country, while the third and final volume will cover Fezzan, the southern part of the country.Philip Kenrick - the author of this volume - is a classical archaeologist who has worked extensively in Libya, both on excavations and on field surveys.This book comes highly recommended: on the flap of the back cover we find a statement by professor David Mattingly, a well-known authority on ancient Libya, and the author of a book (from 1995) with the same title:  Tripolitania The statement ends with these words: "Don't waste your money on lesser products, this is THE guidebook to Libya's archaeology."Can the book live up to this praise? If you ask me, the answer is yes. The material is well organised, and the text is written by an author who knows his topic very well.The book begins with a brief introduction that provides the historical background. The main part of the book (the gazetteer) is divided into seven sections. It concludes with a glossary, a chronological table, a bibliography and an index.There are 113 illustrations including colour photos and drawings, i.e. maps and plans, which show the layout of an ancient town or of an ancient building.The large and famous sites - like Sabratha and Lepcis Magna - are easy to find. Smaller sites - like Ghirza - are not so easy to find. Maybe they are in a remote area. Maybe there is not a modern road leading to the entrance. For these cases, the author gives detailed driving instructions. In addition, he gives the GPS coordinates, latitude and longitude. It does not get any more precise than that.Kenrick uses a star-system to rate the sites and - within the larger sites - the individual monuments and museums. I think this is a good idea. Most travellers do not have the time or indeed the desire to see everything. They just want to see the star attractions.I like this book , but I have to mention a few things that bother me. Hopefully, these (minor) flaws will be corrected if there is a second printing or a second edition of the book.* Page 59: "They shows..." instead of They show...* Page 63: "The theatre is undoubtedly the most striking monument at Sabratha, and deservedly so."You cannot discuss whether a building deserves to be striking or not. He could use the word "famous" instead of "striking" or simply delete the last three words.* Page 64: "At either end of the stage, passageways (vomitoria) led directly into the orchestra from the outside."The passageway leading directly to (or from) the orchestra is known by the Greek word parodos (plural: parodoi). The Latin word vomitoria is used to describe the passageways leading from the auditorium to the outside. The audience exited the building through the arcades on the back side. It looked like the theatre was spitting them out. Hence the word vomitoria.* Page 67, about the amphitheatre of Sabratha: "The seats are well-preserved..."I wish this was true, but I am afraid it is not.* Page 99: "But this was part only of the scheme." The order of the words is wrong.* Page 112, about two temples in Lepcis Magna: "The top of the podium of this temple was also linked to that of Liber Pater by means of arches which spanned the narrow intervening street."This arrangement is rare, but not unique. There is a similar case in Sufetula in modern Tunisia: three temples built next to each other and linked by means of arches. This parallel should be mentioned.* Page 112: "As one leaves the Old Forum at the N corner, ..., there lie on the ground to the R, just on the foreshore, three huge columns of cipollino marble."The columns are there, whether you leave the forum or not. It would be better to say: When you leave the Old Forum at the N corner, you will see three huge columns of cipollino marble lying on the ground...* Page 124, about the Hunting Baths at Lepcis Magna: "it was possibly to restore the vaulted roofs..."Not possibly, but possible.* Page 132: "In its final form, the circus at Lepcis was 450 m long and 70 m wide."The author has confused the inside dimensions (the racetrack) (420 x 70 m) with the outside dimensions (racetrack and auditorium) (450 x 100 m).* Page 136, about the museum at Lepcis Magna: "Just inside the entrance, on the right-hand wall, is a large artist's impression of the ancient city seen from the air."When he puts it like this, we think the artist is very large. But he wants to say that the drawing is very large.* Page 217, the chronological table: "161-166: Lucius Verus."Lucius Verus died in 169. He was emperor 161-169.* The bibliography (pp. 219-220) does not include a book edited by J.M. Reynolds and J.B. Ward-Perkins: "The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania" (published by the British School at Rome in 1952). Since 2009 this valuable collection of sources has been available as an online database established by King's College in London.Kenrick's book has 232 pages, but it is a slim volume. It fits into a large pocket, and certainly into a handbag or a shoulderbag. Be sure to take it with you when you go to Libya. You do not want to miss a single detail that is mentioned in this excellent guidebook.Update: the book about Cyrenaica was published in 2013. Here is a link:  Cyrenaica (Libya Archaeological Guides) .

Excellent

Tripolitania by Philip Kenrick is a must for the understanding of the Archaeological Sites. I was there in March April this year and was blown away by the richness of the sites. The local guides were good,especially Mohammed Arreshy at Leptis Magna who guided Kenrick. No other book on Libya covers the time span from prehistoric to AD 1051. Greeks, Phoenicians,Romans, Spaniards,Turks and latterly Italians. All have left their mark with Kenrick as your mentor.Highly recommended.

My sister and I travelled to Tripoli in September 2009 and visited the Roman sites around the city. This book was absolutely fantastic as a background to the history of each one. We were fortunate to have a super guide called Terek Tabat in Sabratha on our first day and the whole area was fantastic. We travelled to Jabal Nafusah another day and used the book again to search for isolated sites. In Lepcis Magna we had a fantastic guide, Mohammad Arreshy, who is recommended in the book. "Dr Lepcis" as he is known to many ex-pats was absolutely amazing taking us around the site and answered all our questions with patience and care. (We tried to get into Villa Silin, but it was closed to "preserve" it which was a shame as it looked amazing from the book's description and photos we had seen of the inside.) Mustafa Turgan was our city guide for our Madina tour and he too was great bringing the ancient city area alive.We decided to use the book when we went to the National Museum and did not take a Guide at the entrance. The book was absolutely spot-on in every part of the museum and was easy to follow and we could take our time, seeing absolutely everything and not just what the Guide wanted us to see in the time allotted. This was fantastic as the book explained all the items of interest and where they had come from and we could match them up to where we had been. We were so glad that we had left the Museum to last after going to all the sites as it really consolidated the knowledge that we were given by the superb Guides that we had.Since returning home I have used the book to work through the hundreds of photographs that I took over the 5 days naming them and recording the information. The book has brought alive the holiday memories once again!Definitely an invaluable tool for anyone who is going to Libya. It is easy to read and to follow, but lookout for the Guides mentioned above, as their knowledge on site is absolutely invaluable. The only sad part for us was that we didn't have time to see all the other sites in the rest of Libya! What an amazing country with a fantastic history and kind, generous, helpful people wherever we went.

There are three good reasons to buy this book before you head off to Libya:i) Expertly written and yet accessibleii) Great plans of the major sitesiii) Comprehensive coverage of sites off the beaten track, though this is hardly a meaningful phrase for Libya, as we had even had Leptis and Sabratha to ourselves when I visited with my daughter.More photographs would have been helpful, but we took enough ourselves to compensate. Looing forward to the next two volumes covering the rest of Libya.