📷 Montaha · Pexels

Where in the world

Libya

Leptis Magna

Roman · Libya

Field notes

civilizations: RomanPhoenician-Punic
types: City · Port
built: 700 BCE
occupied: 700 BCE — 637 CE
country: Libya

The site

Leptis Magna stands at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda on the Libyan coast, founded as a Punic settlement before 500 BC and later a prominent city of Roman Libya. Its greatest expansion came under Emperor Septimius Severus, who was born here. Abandoned after the 7th-century Muslim conquest, Leptis lay remarkably preserved beneath sand dunes until Italian archaeologists unearthed its ruins in the 1920s. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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