Tomorrow, Saturday, we stay in Tripoli because today everything was closed (Islamic country). On Sunday we plan to leave for Ghadames in the west and Sabha, Akakus mountains and Awbari lakes in the very south of the Jamahiriya. As I am already mentioning Jamahiriya I also feel obliged to transfer the knowledge about the meaning of the name, as it has been explained to me today. Jumhuriya is for example Misr (Egypt), Slofiniya, Lubnan, Italiya, etc. A republic. The kind in which everybody is being governed by only one person (?). Jamahiriya, on the other hand (Libya is the first Jamahiriya in the world!), is a system in which the people govern by themselves (they are doing it through committees, you can learn more on the issue from the first book by Qadhafi, "The Green Book"), there is no "tyrant" above them (Mr. Qadhafi is only The Revolution leader and not a president!).
Libya is just gorgeous (for starter we looked at some pictures of the desert we are going to – in a couple of days our photos will also be on the web if we are previously not digested by vultures), but as with every beauty, moving inside her is a costly matter, she is hard to reach and while we're in her we feel somehow restricted. No beauty lets you explore her jewels, and at night she has a headache so you are not allowed to move.
23.1.2004 | Tripoli, Libya
Libya is fantastically beautiful! Today we visited the Greco-roman city of Leptis Magna, to where we made a "short excursion" only 130 kilometres from Tarabulus. I have already seen many roman ruins but none of them can compete in beauty, splendour, expansion and preservation of Leptis Magna. Simply enchanting. I am sure that even those not interested in antiquity would be touched by it. It by far overwhelms even the sites of Cyrene and Appolonia in eastern Libya, but even more promising seems to be the site of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which is waiting for us at the end of our visit to Libya.
