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InayatShah — Leptis Magna Rework -I
Published: 2014-05-09 18:21:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 2259; Favourites: 153; Downloads: 31
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Location: Leptis Magna, Khoms, LibyaI visited the site a couple of weeks before the Civil War in Libya
Leptis Magna also known as Lectis Magna (or Lepcis Magna as it is sometimes spelled), was a prominent city of the Roman Empire.
Its ruins are located in Khoms, Libya, 130 km (81 mi) east of Tripoli, on the coast where the Wadi Lebda meets the sea.
The site is one of the most spectacular and unspoiled Roman ruins in the Mediterranean.
In the 2011 civil war there were reports that Leptis Magna was used as a cover for tanks and military vehicles by pro-Gaddafi forces during the 2011 Libyan civil war. When asked about the possibility of conducting an air-strike on the historic site, NATO refused to rule out the possibility of such an action saying that it had not been able to confirm the rebels' report that weapons were being hidden at the location
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Comments: 52
Thank you ...
You do have a lot of excellent model photography in your gallery too
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ohh many thanks
that makes me happy to read very
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Bravo Sir, what a beautiful shot! I hope it survives. Our ability to destroy things seems to have outpaced our power to preserve them.
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Thank you very much ... I do hope it survives and peace comes to Libya and this wonderful site is open to the rest of the world to see
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I think I saw Pink Floyd there in 1973?? (maybe not)
FANTASTIC PHOTO!
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I think that was the Colosseum is Rome. This is in Libya ..
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I was just joking anyway... I forgot they did play Rome GREAT PHOTO tho, getting to see the world!
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This is truly magnificent - so complete 
Given the recent record of western airstrikes in places like Iraq, and the devastation caused to fragile city remains (Ur springs to mind, but it was by no means the only site of unique historical importance which was irrevocably damaged), Leptis Magna would be very lucky to survive intact. I hope the gods were smiling ..
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The gods were smiling, Leptis Magna is unharmed. AT least till now .. although .. one of oru associate companies were building a "Model City" for the previous government .. hardly 2 kilometers away ... THAT was totally destroyed
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Sorry for the delay - what Model City was this? The late Colonel had some wonderfully bizarre ideas. Not that I admired him or anything - but I must be one of the few people in East Anglia who have read "The Little Green Book". I think someone else wrote the first chapter, it sounded quite reasonable - then it was downhill all the way - with succeeding chapters getting shorter and shorter, as he lost interest. I also read the detective novel attributed to Saddam Hussein - a fake probably.
It was a phase. That's all
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The late colonel did have some strange ideas but mostly they were related to his personal status and ego and that is where the trouble stemmed from. Apart from that very ugly fact, Libya was probably the best example of practical socialism in the world. Everybody was educated, people who wanted to study abroad .. just had to get admission and the government would give them scholarships, there was excellent free medical care for everybody, the government provided housing for everybody.. practically zero crime food was subsidized to almost 30% .. . After Libya emerged from the decades long embargo .. the structures and buildings .. that were once masterpieces were almost dilapidated ruins and there was a great housing shortfall .. as even construction material was difficult to get during the embargo. The first thing the "Our Great Leader" The late colonel did was to start making houses for his people .. some expansions in the main cities .. which were old and would have been difficult to modernize, so he ordered the building of a few large Model towns .. modern, well planned with proper infrastucture and facilities . One of our affiliate companies in Libya was awarded the contract to make one such modern city close to Leptis magna .. a some kilometers ahead of AL Khoms on the coastal highway
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Well, this is a really fascinating insight. I'm sure you're aware how the Colonel was depicted in the west - he was easily ridiculed because of his many personal idiosyncrasies, and he was always presented as a pantomime villain. From what I understand, Iraq too was a similarly successful socialist state, with a highly educated population, high standard of living, and welfare systems. Other secular Arab leaders took their lead from Egypt's Nasser, and tried to build socialist republics - Syria is the other large socialist state in the region, ofcourse.. They have all fallen now - or nearly, in the case of Syria. I had never heard of these model towns - it's a very socialist solution to an acute problem - but it would no doubt have have worked. After WW2 the same thing was done here in the UK - new towns were built, mainly full of social housing for the poor. The colonel, Saddam and the Assads have all been vilified in the west as autocratic despots, but there has been a long tradition of autocratic despots in the Middle East - and many still thrive, in their wealthy kingdoms.
You know, it's easy to see why so many people in the region see American conspiracies everywhere - they have lost so much.
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I do agree that he was in many respects a larger than life "Villain" .. mainly because his rule was not the accepted norm of democracy.
But there were many other aspects to rule .. that were not as news worthy ..
I would suppose Syria and Iraq were similar .. (since I have never visited them I couldnt comment first hand)
One thing that one can not deny is that they brought stability to the region one way of another ..
Syria being the last but crumbling block .. that staves of some form of geo-political stability in the region .. if syria falls .. there is nothing but anarchy from the western border of pakistan all across the middle east .. crossing across to Africa .. and bordering the central asian republics, europe, russia , the Mediterranean and all the way down africa.
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Yes, stability used to be valued by the west, but perhaps they no longer need stability in the Middle East now, to secure their vital mineral interests. They have fanned the fires of war and sedition. It might serve their interests to have the region debilitated by internal conflict.
I don't envy Pakistan - it's surrounded by volatile or unfriendly neighbours. Will the BJP electoral success in India have a negative impact on the progress made to normalise relations between the the two nations, do you think? I do hope they build on past success there, it's surely in the interests of both to forge a friendly relationship.
Another possible stable nation which could potentially be a friend is Iran.
Iran is emerging from the international doghouse now, and there could be opportunities for links there perhaps. I do know something about Iran, I have friends there, and my son visited Shiraz a few years ago to attend a friend's wedding. There is a strong appetite there for greater freedom and liberalisation, and the tide definitely seems to be turning. There was uproar there about the humiliation of the young "Happy in Tehran" group - which prompted an apology form the president on twitter, of all things. They have a young highly educated population who are very outward looking and yearn for greater freedom - it must come soon.
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Interests of both to forge a friendly relationship ...
One the surface yes .. underneath there are still many layers of complications ..
But to be honest .. the status between our countries hasnt changed much for probably the that 15 years or so ..
But for the politicians and power mongers in both the countries ..
the other country has always been the whipping boy .. to distract the population from the real issues ..
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Yes I can imagine - there are problems to such an alliance - and it would alarm quite a number of other allies 
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There is nothing wrong with the froggies ...
except they clobbered you in the battle of hastings 
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Well the English say the French are arrogant, and the French say the same about the English, and we're both right ..
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Ahhh ... I must give this important military advice to the Chief of Army Staff .. next time he comes round for tea and cucumber butties .. please make sure all soldiers have a nice hot bath before you send them into battle .. LOL
I do love pushing the french-english button .. I do it all the time .. I am a also consultant for a company in the UK .. and i get ample chance to push that button .. on the other hand I also spent a year in Paris with a leading french defence company .. once I got my driver so upset ... he practically threw me out of the car and I had to walk nearly 4 kms to the production facility.
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Well no English driver would ever do that - they're brought up to ignore wind up merchants
There's sneaking admiration for the French when they do things like that. They used to have a tradition of mounting barricades every time they opposed a government measure. Lorry drivers and farmers regularly used to block the ports, which often meant the Brits in their lorries and caravans were left waiting in queues for days. Fortunately we are used to queuing
Hot baths are not to be sneezed at 
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What did I say to him ... Well it wasnt much .. but kind of the straw that broke the camels back ...and was a culmination of maybe 8-9months of winding up on both sides ..
But you would need the background to understand ..
Our team was with the Largest Defence company in france in those days ... and i was the team leader ..
(I could understand french ... but never let the people at the company know)
The driver was quite racist ... but never openly .. he didnt realise I knew what he was saying in french to us ..
So I took to winding him up every chance I got ...
this was back in 86 .. the year that France won the world cup and the year the americans mistakenly bombed gaddafi for the berlin disco bombings ...
The week before there had been a all company football tournament .. (The driver had wanted to get back at us .. for the needling) .. he knew NONE of us played football in the least ,, and Kind of forced the management to make us participate .. and for weeks before the tournament he had kept on telling his friends .. "we will break these ****'s legs" ...
Also the Drivers team had won the football competition for ever ...
Anyway .. (what he didnt know) was I managed to get a composite team of all the "foreigners" there .. egyptians that did nothing but play football and one of the instructors who was a semi professional football player himself onto the team.
Driving us to the stadium .. he kept boasting and showing us the huge crate of chilled champagne .. that they would be celebrating after the victory ...
Anyway as things would happen in the semi-finals we came up against his team and clobbered them so they were out .. and to rub more salt in his wounds .. we conceded the finals to the "ladies" team ...
He made a hue and cry about it not being fair .. but the management said .. listen you forced them to play now be a good sport ...
So on the way back we both attempted to be nice ...
there were a few days holiday ... and then he came to pick us up from the hotel and (as usual he made some unpleasant remark in french) .. but I acted nice but lets says not so nice ...
The conversation went
Him: What did you do during the holiday
Me: Ohh I went to see the eiffel tower (We hung out there nearly everyday ..actually .. it was just one metro stop away from us)
Him: How did you like it.
Me: Magnificent awesome amazing .. Its the (lots of praises) .. (It was probably the first time I had praised anything french)
Me: But when I stood underneath the Eiifel tower I saw the MOST MOST amazing thing ever ...
Him: Really .. what did you see ..
Me: There was a huge sign on the bottom of the eiffel tower .. it read "MADE IN CHINA" ... (refernce to the souveniers you get in paris .. all made in china)
The whole coach load of guys went crazy ... laughing and hooting and well ....
He made us all disembark and he drove off ...
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It really stings when you overhear remarks made about you in another language, which the speaker believes you can't understand. It happened to me once - in Germany, where a drunk took exception when one of the counter staff in a supermarket spoke to me in English. It was along the lines of "If they come over here, take our jobs, they should be made to speak German". The cheek ! I was on holiday! And it was the first time in my life I'd been on the receiving end of that kind of thing. It made me realise how angry victims of racism must be. I've always disapproved of racism - and in England it's far better than it used to be, at least in public. So I confronted him, in German, and he just crumbled, muttered apologies. I can do an icy telling off pretty well
But those attitudes are there still. You only have to look at the results of the recent European elections (where the far right nationalist parties romped home) to see that immigration (the resentment of foreigners) is an enduring sore point. However, the turn out is so low, it's probably mostly those with that particular axe to grind who voted. I live in Norfolk, where there are plenty of East Europeans, who are generally hard working, positive and polite. Unlike many of the disgruntled Brits, I'm sorry to say.
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The champagne .. returned back from the stadium in the same bus ... unopened ...
I do agree with your observations about the popularity far right nationalist parties and racism being muted .. (except when your playing soccer) ...
I do have quite a few stories .. about that and some ridiculously funny ones ..
but i can leave them for another time ...
However .. the recent thing about Jeremy clarkson .. and from my perspective ... and i has seen the so called offending clip ... which i personally didnt find offensive, is stupidity in reverse ..
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really wonderful image - great composition and the clouds and ocean are spectacular.
I always like great shots of great architecture and you can appreciate the fact the designer of this site had a very good eye for these things as well to lay them out for you to shoot
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Thank you very much ...
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