Libya

Northern Africa

A vast North African country that is mostly Sahara, holding some of the finest classical ruins on the Mediterranean and some of the greatest prehistoric rock art on earth. Its draws run from the Roman city of Leptis Magna and the Phoenician-Roman port of Sabratha on the coast, through the medieval caravan town of Ghadames, to the deep south-west: the painted and engraved canyons of the Tadrart Acacus and the dune fields and lakes of the Ubari Sand Sea. Travel is under standing do-not-travel advisories and runs only through specialist operators handling permits and security.

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What you can do in Libya

Museums & Galleries

Leptis MagnaJan Feb Mar Apr Oct Nov DecLeptis Magna is one of the great Roman cities left standing anywhere, and because so few travellers reach it, you often have the ruins to yourself. It was the home city of Septimius Severus, who became emperor in the year 193 and poured imperial wealth back into it, so the forum, the basilica, the market with its stone measuring tables, the theatre above the sea and the vast Severan arch are all here in worked limestone and marble rather than as foundations. The site sits right on the Mediterranean near Al Khums, and its on-site museum holds the statuary and mosaics lifted from the streets and baths. Paired with the Phoenician-Roman port of Sabratha a little to the west, it makes the Libyan coast one of the richest stretches of classical antiquity on the sea, walked in near silence rather than in crowds.

Trekking / Hiking

Tadrart AcacusJan Feb Mar Nov DecThe Tadrart Acacus is one of the great open-air galleries of prehistoric art on earth, and you reach it on foot and by 4x4 across some of the most beautiful desert in the Sahara. Over thousands of years people painted and carved these canyon walls with herds of cattle, elephants, giraffe and hippo, with hunters, dancers and later the horses and camels that arrived as the land dried into desert. Walking among the panels near Ghat, camping under enormous skies with Tuareg guides, and crossing to the nearby engravings of Wadi Methkandoush and the dune-ringed lakes of the Ubari Sand Sea, is a way to feel the depth of that history rather than glance at it. The rock forms alone would justify the journey, natural arches and pinnacles weathered out of orange sandstone, but it is the art at eye level on the rock that makes the Acacus extraordinary. It is remote, permit-bound and hard-won, and for those few who reach it now, unforgettable.

Best months at a glance

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Museums
Trekking