* All meals (some lunches not included)

* Transport in a/c mini-bus or coach with English-speaking escort.

* Entry Visa and registration

After arrival into Tripoli International airport you will have a private transfer to your hotel in the city centre (approx. 30 mins). After a short break we will take you on a city tour of Tripoli “Oea” (the Medina, souk, Islamic architecture, and the famous triumphal arch of Marcus Aurelius).

This is your opportunity to meet your guide/escort for the whole tour and to ask many of the questions you may have had ready about this fascinating and, until recently, relatively unknown country (to "Westerners").

Then dinner in the city at the Al Anthar Restaurant. This is an excellent restaurant built into the grounds surrounding the arch of Marcus Aurelius (see picture >>>).

After breakfast, departure to Sabratha which was selected as an Emporium, or trading post, by the Phoenician merchant Sabratha and holds one of the most magnificent and interesting Roman Theatres and one of the most splendid mosaics of the Byzantine period.

Sabratha as we see it nowadays is first and foremost a creation of the Roman genius for building cities. The Romans developed the commercial potential of Sabratha by using the port as an outlet for a trade route running through Ghadames to Central Africa. Ivory, slaves and wild animals constituted the bulk of this traffic. Our visit will include the Mausoleum of Bes, discovered by the Italian Antonio di Vita as late as 1962 and dating back to the 2nd Century BC, to the South Forum Temple dating to 160 AD, to the Basilica of Apoleius known as the Forum Basilica transformed into a Christian church, continuing with the Forum which was the center of the social life, the Antonine Temple built in 90- 95 AD and dedicated to the joint Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Touring the Site we also include the Basilica of Justinian, the Curia, the Baths, the Temple of Isis; sunrise and sunset at Sabratha are solitary and bewitching.

Without watchmen, without tourists, the city breathes deeply and one respects the stillness, finishing with the might of Sabratha’s theatre, the most notable Roman building of Sabratha dated to 175-200 AD; facing the semi-circular triple-tiered auditorium stands the great scaenae frons, 25 m high and composed of 108 Corinthian columns arranged in three storey which follow the gentle curves of the free apses that contain the three doorways familiar from Roman Theatres all over the Empire.

Lunch will take place at a restaurant on the way back to Tripoli, from where in the afternoon we will fly to Benghazi, have dinner and spend the night at your hotel.

Breakfast, then departure to Ptolemais. The city was founded in the 3rd century BC and was a port for the City of Barce; Ptolemais became capital of the province of Libya Superior in the time of Diocltian and Capital of the Pentapolis around the 5th century AD.

The Site itself is stunning and has a romantic atmosphere; we start our visit with the museum which hosts some of Ptolemais' monuments such as the 4 season mosaic and the fountain of the 8 dancing Menadi, moving on we find the remains of the Arch of Constantine 311-312 AD. The Palace of Columns, the most famous building in Ptolemais, dates between the 2nd & 1st century BC with an area of 6000 sqm from which you previously admired the mosaic of the Medusa during the visit to the museum. Continue towards the great cisterns, a massive complex of 15 cisterns; 4 to the north, 4 to the south, 3 on the west, 3 to the east and one central, 6m deep and 5 million 4 hundred thousand cubic m of water arrives through a channel 25 km away from the city. We will finish the visit with lunch at the site restaurant.   

Drive to Qasr Libya, known as the Old Olbia as it had been referred to in the Sinesio (Bishop of Cyrene) letters in the 5th century AD and was the residence of its bishop. It has two churches of a great religious interest. The western, known for its extraordinary architecture, and the eastern, for its splendid 50 mosaics pieces. These originally came from the floor of the western Basilica and depict a wide and interesting range of subjects, the panels are in a beautiful condition and one of them depicts the only existing representation of the Pharos of Alexandria – one of the seven wonders of the ancient World. Later in the Turkish period the eastern church was transformed into a fort.

Dinner will be at the hotel in Apollonia.

Breakfast and then start discovering Sussa “Apollonia” (once a port north of Cyrene) with its large theatre and byzantine churches; then head to Shahat “Cyrene” where the harmony of the Greek and roman ruins is well worth seeing - the villa of the rich priest of Apollon Jason Magnus, the Agora, the Sanctuary of Apollo, temple of Apollo and Artemis and the gigantic Temple of Zeus (5th Century BC). The history of the founding by Greek immigrants from Thira Island (modern Santorini) has been handed to us by a mixture of legend and historical tradition.

The Fountain of Apollo was the prime cause of the City’s foundation on this site and was linked, in legend, with the nymph Kura or Kurana a Greek maiden whom Apollo wooed and brought to Libya as his bride; the fountain is a torrent of water emerging from a cavern’s mouth on the upper terrace. The true spring lies at the end of a 300m tunnel in the heart of the hillside; on the left hand side of the fountain 5 circular Byzantine lime-kilns consumed many of the pagan statues. Here is the mighty Sanctuary of Apollo with its Greek and Roman Propylea - inside the sanctuary we find the Temple of Apollo, the most important monument which incorporates the remains of three buildings.

Then we move to the Great Temple of Zeus, alongside the Necropolis of Cyrene, one of the most extensive cemeteries in the ancient world and covers many square miles. The visible multiple grave tombs number over 1200 and there are also several thousand sarcophagi. It is an Octostyle building of gigantic dimensions slightly larger than the Parthenon of Athens and the temple of Zeus at Olympia, constructed in an archaic Doric style around the 6th century BC.

We stop for lunch followed by an afternoon excursion to Apollonia. Ancient Apollonia, which was Cyrene’s port for a thousand years, and its ruins form an essential part of the whole archaeological complex, originally constructed by the Greeks when they began to develop their naval merchant fleets. Modern Sousa was founded in 1897 as a colony of Muslim refugees from Crete and there is a decidedly non-African strain apparent in its population. We conclude our visit with the Museum which includes some of the area’s heritage.

Then drive back to Benghazi for a flight to Tripoli where you will spend the night.

Breakfast is followed by departure to Leptis Magna, one of the best-preserved cities of antiquity. It was founded by Phoenician merchants around the beginning of the first millennium BC. The great Roman Emperor Severus born in Leptis in 145 AD turned his attention to his native city making substantial changes which developed the city on such a grand scale.

The visit starts with the Arch of Septimius Severus standing at the beginning of the main north-south street, the Cardo Maximus, where this intersects the east west street, the Decumanus Maximus. Dedicated to Severus and built in 203 AD to celebrate the arrival of the great Emperor. Onwards to the Palestra - a place for sports and games - which is parallel to the Baths of Hadrian built in 126-127 AD. We continue to the Nymphaeum and the Street of Colonnades, built under Severus and dedicated to the nymphs, it is a semi-circular construction containing a pool and fountain. We then reach the Severus Forum and the adjoining Basilica which are the major extant large-scale buildings in Leptis. The Harbour, which was originally the natural mouth of the Leptis Valley, is followed by the Old Forum which dates to the beginning of the Imperial Era. The final stop in the morning tour is the theatre.

A stop for lunch is certainly required at this point (there is a lovely restaurant very close to the site for a relaxing air-conditioned break) before continuing the visit with the Museum and finally to the Amphitheatre - built in the period of Nero around the year 56 AD on a natural slope of soft sandstone. It was renovated and enlarged in the 2nd century AD under Severus. Near the Amphitheatre was a small temple of the famous Artemis, or Diana, of Ephesus in Western Asia.

You may well have the whole place almost to yourselves; this is an incredible experience in today's mass tourism and one more reason why this may well be the best site of antiquity you will ever visit. On the way back a significant stop at the Charming Villa Sileen may be possible, depending upon ongoing renovation works.

Drive to Tripoli for dinner at Tripolis Restaurant and overnight hotel.

Full day dedicated to Tripoli, the old Oea, founded by the Phoenicians in the second Millennium BC and transformed by the Romans in 146 BC after the destruction of Carthage. Morning visit to the Tripoli Archaeological Museum followed by a tour of Tripoli, including The Kramanli House, the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, the Famous Gurgi’s mosque and the fresh narrow streets of the Medina for some pretty much hassle-free shopping.

The National Museum houses a fine collection of the country’s archaeological heritage, antiquities, classical statuary, fine Mosaics, historic and prehistoric artifacts. The Ahmed Karamalli Pasha mosque built by the founder of the Karamalli Dynasty in 1738 is the next stop - it is a rectangular complex which has an area of 50 x 45 m, with 25 domes and a geometric floral motive, which was a characteristic of that period. A visit is also made to the house of the Karamalli built in the second half of the 18th Century which is an interesting Museum showing the lifestyle of that period.

Our tour will continue in the old Medina with its maze of narrow alleyways, elegant mosques and the animated souk with the visit of Gurji Mosque built in 1832 in the same style of Ahmed Karamalli Pasha by Yusef Gurji Pasha, admiral of the Turkish navy and son-in-law of the then Governor of Tripoli, Mustafa Pasha. Finish with the Arch of Marcus Aurelius built in honour of the great Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 163 AD and it’s the only evidence left of the Roman Remains in Tripoli.

Dinner at Tripolis Restaurant.

Breakfast and then transfer to Tripoli International Airport to have a safe flight back home.