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Leptis Magna
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How it came to be
Leptis Magna began as a trading port founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC. It later came under Carthage, and after Carthage lost the Punic Wars it was absorbed into the Roman province of Africa. Under Trajan it became a Roman colonia.
Septimius Severus, born in the city, became emperor in 193 and ruled until 211. He gave his home town a new forum and a great basilica, rebuilt its docks, and visited in person in 205. The artificial harbour basin covered almost 102,000 square metres.
The Vandals took the city in 439, Berber raiders sacked it in 523, and after the Arab conquest in the 7th century it was largely abandoned. Italian archaeologists began digging it out of the dunes in the 1920s. Leptis Magna was inscribed in 1982, and in 2016 it was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger together with Libya's four other sites.
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