Leader of the United States of Africa; Saviour of Africa; the Point of Light; the Leader of the Revolution; Godfather of Libya; but all agree with the billboards seen everywhere: Where Gaddafi goes, happiness follows.
As we drove from the airport into Tripoli, our tour leader mentioned that "Our policeman will not be joining us until tomorrow but he will probably sleep most of the journey!" And his next statement was that "Bacchus was the God of Fun and Wine".
Thus started our introduction to life in Tripolitania.
Like Cubans with Castro, most Libyans have only known Gaddafi as their leader.
You are accosted with this knowledge at every turn as roadside banners and billboards proclaim "38".
This signifies the number of years he has been in power.
Marry this to the fact that 50% of Libyans are under age 30 and you have an interesting population.
Our guide explains that they are used to him and know how his mind works so they are anxious about who and when he will be replaced.
The other posters of him state 1999.
9.
9 which is the date of the first Africa Unity Organization meeting - another landmark for Gaddafi on his march to "high priest" if you will.
Can you imagine Stephen Harper putting up posters of the date of his election to office? One of Gaddafi's ideas back in 1998 was to offer $200,000 USD to any Libyan who was interested in going to West Africa to help populate the area.
You had to go and set up a business there and the local Libyan officer would check your papers and dole out the loan.
You did not have to pay it back for 5 years.
So our tour guide, Tarek, went to Burkina Faso and met up with another Libyan who had taken the loan.
He owned 2 restaurants - one in Ouagadougou and one in Accra - and so Tarek became the manager of both restaurants.
It was also a good way to get away from his mother who was bugging him to get married.
So life was quite good for 2 or 3 years but then the world changed in 2001 and he moved back to Libya.
Tarek's take on blacks and West Africa was interesting.
I asked if he left friends back in West Africa and he said no.
Talk led to colonization.
Someone mentioned Kenya.
Then Tarek said, "You have to remember one thing.
When the British left their colonies in Africa, they left organizations, infrastructure like roads, and things were going along quite well".
He then said "The only thing the French left in their colonies was their attitude!" According to Tarek, French people looked down upon black people and the blacks learned that the whites had everything and were reluctant to share.
So when these Libyans went to West Africa, they were perceived by the locals as being white - they were certainly not black - and so their mutual attitude towards each other was quite hostile.
So much for Gaddafi's "Let's just all be African together!" The other thing going on - which apparently still does - is that Gaddafi has offered any Libyan a whopping $45,000 USD cash if they marry a non-Libyan African person.
All they have to do is take their marriage certificate to the Libyan officer and cash is handed over.
Apparently a few of Tarek's friends have done this - what a real temptation - and are still married.
We were also informed that there is a feeling among some of the government ministers that doing any reconstruction of the ancient sites or promoting tourism to any of the sites would play into the idea of colonialism.
This is not a tolerable notion.
Even the Minister of Education - so it is said - is in favour of destroying all the ancient sites.
Teaching foreign languages was forbidden for years.
A few stories like this and you wonder about being in power for 40 years! So why was I in Libya? Because the Romans and Greeks had been there and I wanted to see what they had left behind.
There are some amazing sites to see.
Our Exodus tour group started at Sabratha and it was stunning.
It was an important trading centre for caravans arriving from Central Africa due to its location on the sea as well as the fertility of the soil for olives.
Olives in fact play a major role in life here - not just eating and cooking - but also for washing and for fuel.
One of the most popular dishes amongst families is the following: date juice, a little flour, boiled in salt water with a dash of olive oil! This is the dish of choice to celebrate the birth of a child in Libya.
The basics of the ancient diet were: grains, olive oil and wine! Aside from the wine, life has not changed much.
It started to feel quite okay to envision Romans bustling about the sites walking the very mosaic floors I was walking.
The number and quality of the mosaics in Libya are considered one of the world's richest collections.
We were privileged to see a myriad of mosaics - some still in their original location, others that had been moved to protective environments.
One of the most striking of the mosaic portraits is that of the Alexandria Lighthouse (with a height of 300 feet) on which the sun god (Helios) appears ...
another of a shepherd on a rock with his dog crouched down by his side and his lunch hanging in a sac from a nearby tree.
Our days were sunny and warm ( with a jacket on) and we spent many hours walking the sites of Sabratha, Cyrene, Apollonia, and Leptis Magna.
Quoting from Richard Goodchild in his historical guide 'Cyrene and Apollonia', here is his comment about the theatrical side of the shows that were featured for entertainment in the amphitheatres: "It was customary in these Amphitheatre spectacles to ensure that the beasts entered unexpectedly, by different entrances, so as to avoid the monotony (inherent in the Spanish bullfights) or repetition.
Bushes and other "jungle" scenery were strewn around the arena, so as to give the illusion of a genuine "natural" contest with animals.
" They have found out that live animals used for entertainment in the Emperor's amphitheatres were shipped in (lions, elephants, leopards, dromedaries, ostriches etc.
) along with the main merchandise of gold, slaves and ivory on long distance caravans going to the East .
"During the 1st century B.
C.
, Roman citizens interested in embarking in commercial and financial enterprise began to arrive at Leptis, a city in full expansion.
After Africa was conquered by Caesar, Leptis lost a bit of its status and became what was then known as a "stipendiaria" city, a city subjected to paying taxes.
As Caesar himself tells us, the annual taxes of Leptis amounted to three million pounds of olive oil.
" (From Polaris guide LEPTIS MAGNA).
There followed some good and bad decades for Leptis, a town sometimes referred to as the City of White Shadows.
During the late second/ beginning of the third century, Emperor Septimus Severus ramped up the construction in his native city.
The plinths were in fact carved and finished in Italy and then dragged aboard rafts and sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to this end-of-the-line Phoenician port town that Severus wished would become another Rome.
From this time period, we have the stunning 4 sided Arch not usually favoured by the Romans at the entrance area built to celebrate his reign by highlighting the military glories, religious piety and family harmony of the Severin Dynasty.
There are sharp points at the top of the corners and this is a peculiar feature not found anywhere else.
This arch could be referred to as the first ever roundabout as, surprisingly, it was built 3 steps up so you could not drive through it on your chariot - you had to go around.
As mentioned, Leptis rose from the edges of the Mediterranean Sea and you know, they even had the wherewithal all those years ago to reroute a stream so that part of it would run along the south side of the town and the other part could be funneled for use in the Roman baths that Hadrian had built.
And they built a dam of sorts to control the water flow as well.
I read somewhere that the Romans were "obsessed" with water and I think that may be a good adjective from what I saw.
Fountains galore here.
Unlike the Greeks who were not as concerned about personal hygiene, Hadrian had built two latrine areas - one for women one for men - each built for seventy people to sit at the same time.
The slots in the marble are side-by-side and about 2 feet apart - not too close together so as to impinge on your personal space while far enough apart you could actually perform!!! Amazing.
The theatre is mostly intact and in fact, the sound still impeccable.
The concept of the Amphitheatre was totally a Roman idea.
It was usually built outside the city for a reason - in Leptis' case, it was built on an old stone quarry -handy for building materials - and also on a bit of a hill so it was easier for digging out the seating.
There were 16,000 seats and they were allocated according to status.
There was an underground entrance and it has been proven that they even brought crocodiles here to kill people.
It is believed to be the oldest surviving stone amphitheatre in the world.
The key to Leptis is that the city was never conquered - it was just eventually abandoned which is why we are so lucky to watch the excavators reveal all the wonders from the 1st and 2nd centuries.
The beginning of the end was signaled for the Romans in Libya by the most serious earthquake of 365 A.
D.
Subsequent floods, invasions by outsiders and changing times wore the cities of Tripolitania down so that sand slowly covered these magnificent sites.
The silver lining to the abandonment of the area is that the marble columns covered by sand for the last few centuries have maintained their structure and their beautifully smooth feel.
No one knew that marble could erode until they started excavating here.
Those monuments left above ground have been worn down by the ravages of time and man.
Every time the wind blows, archaeologists hold their breathe as another marble statue is revealed.
And our Exodus group circled back around to Tripoli for a last wander through the old medina.
While not as magnificent in architecture or atmosphere as Damascus or Marrakesh, it has its charm.
Surrounded as it is by a 4th century fortified wall that was made from earth and lime, then covered with whitewash and colourful ceramics, within you will find traditional shops, homes and, of course, 38 mosques.
"The call to prayer has been drifting out over the rooftops of the medina since the 7th century".
With tourism on the rise, Libyans are now also embracing the modern world.
The people are warm and welcoming, the tourist infrastructure quite sufficient, and costs reasonable, so forget the old adages and stereotypes about Libya and visit now.
You will be delighted.