Pulled into Cyrene at the front of the museum at around dusk; we were going to camp in the parking lot but the restaurant told us security might tell us to move so we could camp on their lawn for a small fee, plus it’s fenced from the dogs (???). Well thank Allah we did because there were a LOT of dogs pacing at the fence barking all night.
Cyrene and Apollonia are back up on the coast again (3 days drive north from where we were in the desert) about a days drive from Egypt; they’re actually Greek ruins from way back in the days before the Romans/Phoenicians showed up (around the 5th/6th century BC), so needless to say they’re fairly unique to see in these parts.
Anyway, after waking up we headed straight to the Temple of Zeus which is said to be bigger than the Parthenon in Athens! (found that hard to believe but then I’ve never been to Greece) Met up with the “mandatory” tour guide (always the case in Libya) who started his bid at 100 euros (ouch – think we ended up around the 40 euro mark), headed to the museum. The last few museums we’ve been to have basically been one room without a lot of English explanation… this was the one room again, but had a lot more stuff and some decent commentary. Nigel got busted by our friendly police officer (first thing he’s done on the trip except look good) for taking pics without paying the camera fee, so I had to be extra secretive this time 🙂 Spent about a 1/2 hour walking through before heading to the ruins (Jamie and Jen decided to skip the museum and walk to the ruins instead).
Ruins were great; most of the same types of things we’ve been seeing all throughout the Roman stuff in North Africa (bathhouses, forums, theatres, amphitheatres – gotta have some way of feeding the Christians to the lions); that said, everything seemed to have a slightly different flair, and felt a touch more primitive being a few hundred years older.
The site is quite large and so took a few hours to get through; it’s remarkably intact and in a beautiful setting way up high on a mountain top. At one point I had a moment overlooking the valley/Mediterranean thinking about how mostly everything I’m looking at is the exact same as the people 2500 years ago (not so much the ruins themselves, but more the sea, mountains, landscape, etc). Highlights were probably the underground bathouses, the Temple of Apollo, and the mosaics/marble floors at Apollo’s priest’s house (his name now escapes me).
Drove the truck down to Apollonia (about 20km away) which is right on the water and so was the port for Cyrene. Site doesn’t have nearly as much to look at, but is another beautiful setting on the water, similar to Leptis or Sabratha. Cool part was everything on the shoreline had sank into the ocean for a good few hundred feet out so there were ruins sticking out of the water (no diving/snorkelling allowed though). Apparently it was a very gradual thing over the past couple thousand years. In both sites it was quite interesting that many things were reguilt multiple times due to earthquakes, the Jewish Revolt, the Byzantines, etc.
That night we bush camped about a 1/2 day’s drive to the Egyptian border (and were crossing over to Egypt the next afternoon). 17 “dry” days at this point, but hopefully a cold frosty beer the following night!
Temple of Zeus
Cyrene museum
Moo
Mosaics
Apollo statues
Apollonia
Amir, our guide