Battered by Flood : Libya Asks for Help With Ancient Port

The Libyan government has appealed for help in restoring the ruins of one of the world’s greatest ancient cities, a once-glorious Roman metropolis severely damaged by a flood about a year ago.

A torrent of water rushed over Leptis Magna, about 75 miles east of Tripoli, after several days of heavy rains sent water over a dam 3 miles from the ancient trading center on the Mediterranean coast.

For three days, the rampaging river carried tons of dirt and uprooted vegetation through the ruins, leaving deep mud in such remarkable areas as the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s baths and one of two forums.

Most heavily damaged was the Colonnaded Street, a 400-yard-long road along which visitors strolled from the bath complex to the ancient port. Much of the stone roadway, lined with more than 200 marble columns bearing lotus designs, broke under the weight of the flood waters.

The port end of the street disappeared and is now covered by a small river. Near the heart of the ancient city, the waters reduced the path to a jumble of stone blocks and columns fashioned from Egyptian granite and Italian marble.

Only the ancient market, theater and forum were spared the wrath of the flood.

Sandro Stucchi, an Italian archeologist who surveyed the site, estimated that restoration would cost $33 million and take 10 years.

Omar S. Almahgiub, superintendent of the archeological district that includes Leptis Magna, said the Libyan government is hoping to restore the site with help from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“We want to make an appeal to all people who love monuments,” Almahgiub said.

Almahgiub, who was born in Leptis and whose father was a caretaker of the site, said Libya would provide the personnel to do the manual work but does not have the needed technical expertise.

Bekaddour Ouldali of UNESCO in Paris said the organization has asked Italy--which colonized Libya until World War II--to provide funds for an archeological supervisor, preferably Stucchi, and has provided earth-removal equipment and a pump in case a flood strikes again.

An Italian Foreign Ministry official, Manfredo Incisa, said his government is willing to help but is waiting for a more detailed report from UNESCO.

Little is known outside Libya about the disaster because Libya’s magnificent archeological inheritance is not easily seen.

Tourism almost does not exist in the state ruled by Col. Moammar Kadafi. A recent summer day brought only about a dozen visitors to Leptis Magna, almost all of them foreign diplomatic, construction or oil employees.

In addition, lovers of archeology must step delicately in Libya, whose regime frequently rails against foreign imperialism. For the more militant Kadafi supporters, reminders of ancient colonialism like Leptis Magna are unwanted souvenirs to be destroyed.

Italians began excavating the sprawling city about 1912, the same year the Rome occupied Libya, which Italy controlled until the arrival of the Allied forces in 1943.

The flood halted dreams for extensive excavation of the harbor, considered one of the best-preserved in the ancient Roman world and expected to yield many relics from Leptis’ beginnings as a key Phoenician port and later a prosperous Roman city.

Leptis was founded by seafaring Phoenicians from Carthage as a trading post in the first millennium BC. As merchants developed a brisk business in ivory, ebony, slaves, gold and precious stones from Africa, the site was established as a colony of Carthage about the 7th or 6th Century BC.

In 101 BC, Leptis became an ally of Rome and its residents gained full rights of citizenship.