12-25-2006, 01:10 AM
Here's my Xmas present to you RATs: photos from Ghirza.
Forget Sabratha, Leptis Magna, Cyrene: it's Ghirza you want to visit. It's way out in a stony desert, it is hot, there is a lot of dust, and you look like a clown when you have dressed to protect yourself against the sun, but the trip is worth every second.
In the first place, Ghirza itself is interesting: a romanized Libyan town along the Limes Tripolitanus with two splendid cementeries. Sculpture is not extremely fine -on the contrary- but the artist creates more realism than classical sculptors. You can see a hunt for a lion in which one of the hunters gets killed and is devoured by a hyena. There are also representations of agricultural activities, and you wonder how it was possible to farm this arid land - but yes, it was possible.
In the second place: driving 120 km/hour through the desert is exciting!
I am enthusiastic about all this, and almost forget to mention that Bill has put online a piece on possessio.
Forget Sabratha, Leptis Magna, Cyrene: it's Ghirza you want to visit. It's way out in a stony desert, it is hot, there is a lot of dust, and you look like a clown when you have dressed to protect yourself against the sun, but the trip is worth every second.
In the first place, Ghirza itself is interesting: a romanized Libyan town along the Limes Tripolitanus with two splendid cementeries. Sculpture is not extremely fine -on the contrary- but the artist creates more realism than classical sculptors. You can see a hunt for a lion in which one of the hunters gets killed and is devoured by a hyena. There are also representations of agricultural activities, and you wonder how it was possible to farm this arid land - but yes, it was possible.
In the second place: driving 120 km/hour through the desert is exciting!
I am enthusiastic about all this, and almost forget to mention that Bill has put online a piece on possessio.
