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.

At the end of the visit, drive back to Tripoli, return to your hotel in the late afternoon. Lunch will take place at a restaurant on the way back to Tripoli,

Dinner at Shiraa Restaurant.

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 Essaa 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.

Morning at leisure, then Coffee Break at the Saraya in front of the Red Castle. Later, transfer to Tripoli international airport to have a safe flight back home.