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Insecurity and looting has hit Libya's
archaeological sites in the chaos and fighting that has followed
the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, as rival groups
struggle to consolidate control of the country.
Libya is home to five of UNESCO's World Heritage sites, listed
for their outstanding universal value. The sites include the
ruins of the Roman city of Leptis Magna and Sabratha, which is
famous for its amphitheatre.
There are also prehistoric rock carvings in the Akakous
mountains deep in the southern Sahara desert near the border
with Algeria.
In the east, tourists once trekked to Cyrene, a site founded by
Greeks and later expanded by Romans, nestled in the mountains
some 200 km (124 miles) east of Benghazi.
But with foreign tourists gone and the sites visited only by
Libyan families on weekend trips, locals have seized land at the
sites and vandals have even smeared graffiti on columns and
walls.
That presents a challenge to local authorities trying to protect
the ruins located in the small community of Shahat.
"In Cyrene, instead of speaking to one owner, now we speak to 50
with different backgrounds," said Ahmad Hussein, the head of the
antiquities department of a parallel administration in charge of
eastern Libya.
"Some of the owners have built houses on these sites," he said.
The challenge is worsened by a law in 2013 that allowed people
to reclaim land confiscated under Gaddafi. Some people took that
literally and annexed what they felt they deserved.
Hussein wants to hold those who seized land accountable.
TWO GOVERNMENTS, FEW VISITORS
The effort to preserve ruins is further hampered by the fact
that Libya has two governments. One administration backed by the
United Nations sits in Tripoli, while the east has a parallel
government.
In a rare positive sign, Hussein said that about 1,700 artifacts
had been returned since 2011 after they were looted inside the
country. Many other items are smuggled abroad though.
Leptis Magna in northwestern Libya has been able to escape
vandalism thanks to local history fans and relative security at
its location near the city of Misrata.
Sabratha has been repeatedly hit by fighting between rival
factions and UNESCO last year issued an appeal to protect the
site. The site received no help.
In the capital Tripoli, a lone director is trying to preserve
some 18 Roman graves, dating back some 1,700 years which were
found in 1958 in the western suburb of Janzour.
"There is no support for this site," said al-Amari Ramadan
Mabrouk, director of the Janzour antiquities office.
Libyan families come occasionally but otherwise spiders and dust
cover the graves.
"I cannot give a number for tourists who visit Libya ... but I
can say that, before 2011, tourism was popular in Libya," he
said.
(Additional reporting by Hani Amara; Writing by Ahmed Elumami
and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
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