Travel: Terrific Tripoli

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 12:33

LIBYA has been off the beaten track for decades and was until recently ostracised by the West. But now the north African country has opened its doors to tourists, although – unlike its neighbours Tunisia and Egypt – it has seen relatively few travellers crossing the welcome mat.

It's a vast country, eight times the size of Britain, and distances in Libya are immense. But if you want to leave the desert behind and bunker down in one place, a wonderful time awaits those who choose to discover the charming, hidden face of Tripoli, the country's capital.

Known as the White Bride of the Mediterranean, Tripoli has a relaxed, faded elegance, with its white-walled old town, covered souks and bustling outdoor markets. The main streets are rundown but handsome Italianate colonnades, and the old corniche, or waterfront, is lined with palms that rustle in the cooling breeze that blows off the sea.

Wandering through the handsome gateway of the medina, with its mosques, minarets and Ottoman arches, you'll find craftsmen in tiny, hidden workshops; card games being played in courtyards; steam hissing from ancient hammams (bath houses); and networks of narrow alleyways with buildings held up by ancient marble columns. It feels like you've stepped back in time.

You can easily imagine Tripoli – with a population of around one million – being one the busiest centres of the Saharan desert trade routes, where camel caravans stopped at caravanserais to sell slaves, spices, silks and silver.

Food is basic – fish, meat and salads, Arab-style – and is washed down with alcohol-free beer, sherbet drinks or fruit juices. When the muezzin calls the faithful to Islamic prayer, the city stops, but when the sun goes down, life goes on into the cool early hours.

Tripolines are the most welcoming of people. We never saw a beggar or were pestered by a trader. You don't even haggle in the souk, where everything comes at a fixed price and traders seem relaxed. Wherever we wandered, we always felt safe.

Half a day can be spent sitting in a shaded caf drinking mint tea or in some pleasant, rundown marble square, watching life noisily go by in rackety old taxis (petrol costs 6p a litre and everybody drives).

But life away from the roads couldn't be more relaxing, as ice-creams are lazily licked and shisha water pipes languidly puffed. With only one boutique hotel (the four-star Ancient Zumit Hotel, in the old town), Tripoli is still a long way from the luxury end of the travel market, and mass tourism is embryonic. Foreigners are remarkably few and welcomed with curiosity. Kids greeted us in Arabic, "salaam aleikum", and then English learned from satellite TV stations, before scuttling away, giggling. And tourist police couldn't have been more helpful.

The country's history is meticulously charted (in Arabic only, and you need to take a guide) in the massive medieval Red Castle, in Tripoli's Green Square. Now the National Museum, its contents rival some of the finest in Europe. Among the glories of the ancient world are contemporary oddities, including the VW Beetle owned by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi during the 1969 revolution that toppled King Idris.

Ruins and monuments in Tripoli date back to Punic, Phoenician and Greek times. The only surviving Roman monument is the massive Marcus Aurelius Arch, which looms over the Carthage to Alexandria road, built in AD 165, which leads into the city. If you do want to spread your wings a little, visit Sabratha, about 40 miles west of Tripoli, and Leptis Magna, about 70 miles to the east of the city. Both have impressive ruins that stand on the seafront; sublime and undisturbed in their imperial glory. A bonus is that they are not swamped by hordes of tourists. It is truly moving to find yourself almost alone in this ancient world, sitting quietly in the shadows listening to crickets in the dried grass and imagining how life here could have been.

These magnificent cities were originally excavated from their sandy slumbers by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1940s. Not a lot has been done to them since, and to visit them you need to go with a guide. Allow a day for each, and take a day or two's break between visits to avoid ancient-treasure overload.

Once the loneliest country of the region, Libya has spent years in isolation, waning under UN sanctions and restrictions, which were lifted in 1999. So pack a hat and some toilet paper, and visit this enigmatic ancient city before Gaddafi's modernisation plan demolishes her crumbling, nostalgic remains.

fact file TRIPOLI

BA (www.britishairways.com) flies to Tripoli daily from London Heathrow, and KLM (www.klm.com) flies from Edinburgh and Glasgow via Amsterdam. Fares start from around 340 return.

British passport holders are required to have an Arabic translation of their visa in their passport. If you book a tour through an accredited company, this will be provided.

For four-star accommodation, contact the boutique Ancient Zumit Hotel (www.zumithotel.com).

For package deals to Libya, take a look at Voyages Jules Verne (www.vjv.com), Abercrombie & Kent (www.abercrombiekent.co.uk), Simoon Travel (www.simoontravel.com) and the Ultimate Travel Company (www.theultimatetravelcompany.co.uk).