The greatest Roman city in Africa — a UNESCO metropolis of triumphal arches, a marble market, and a harbour theatre, nearly all buried until the 20th century
Leptis Magna on the Libyan coast is one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world — and arguably the finest example of Roman urban planning and monumental architecture outside of Rome itself. The city was the birthplace of Emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193–211 CE), who spent lavishly to transform his hometown into an imperial showpiece: a triumphal arch, a new harbour with lighthouse, a magnificent basilica, a colonnaded street, a new forum, and expansion of the existing amphitheatre and theatre. What makes Leptis exceptional is the state of preservation: much of the city was burie…
Leptis (originally Lpqy in the Punic language) was a Phoenician trading settlement founded around the 7th century BCE, later incorporated into the Carthaginian sphere. Roman domination came after the Third Punic War (146 BCE), and the city was granted full Roman citizenship by Augustus. Its 3rd-century peak under Septimius Severus — who rebuilt it as a second Rome — was followed by gradual economic decline as trade routes shifted, the harbour silted up, and Berber raids intensified. The Arab conquest in the 640s CE saw the population abandon the coastal city for the interior, and subsequent c…