The ancient Greek city of Cyrene is the only UNESCO-listed site in the area, and floods that killed hundreds of people in Libya also submerged parts of it, archaeologists say. This puts the structures in danger of collapsing.
The ancient Greek Temple of Zeus at Cyrene, Libya. Credit: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0/Wikipedia Commons
But at the same time, additional constructions were exposed by the floodwaters. Authorities from Libya who were sent to examine the ancient city and conserve what they could surprisingly discovered archaeological sites that had suddenly arisen after the floods.
A national council made up of professionals should be established, according to Dr. Ahmed Issa from the Department of Archeology at Omar Al-Mukhtar University, to classify new archaeological monuments and create a restoration strategy for the region.
The Temple of Zeus from the second century AD, which was larger than the Parthenon in Athens, sustained relatively minor immediate damage, but the water circling around their foundations poses a threat for further collapses, according to Vincent Michel, the head of the French archaeological mission in Libya.
ALERT- Floods that hit eastern Libya last week have damaged the @UNESCO world heritage site of Cyrene (locally known as Shahhat). Cyrene is a stunning ancient Greek later Roman city overlooking the coast, 60km west of Derna. I visited the site and this is what I found. THREAD pic.twitter.com/BbOCXC9pli
— Claudia Gazzini (@ClaudiaGazzini) September 18, 2023
“Since the stone in the region is of poor quality, the monuments risk falling apart due to lack of good foundations,” he added.
Speaking to AFP, he continued that "hundreds of cubic meters of water" had flooded the nearby necropolis, shifting and submerging some of the tombs.
About 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of the flood-stricken Derna sits the ancient Greco-Roman city of Cyrene (Shahhat).
The ancient Greek city of Cyrene in Libya is under danger of flooding
A large portion of the area is still flooded days after the massive rains brought on by Storm Daniel on September 10–11, according to Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert with the International Crisis Group think tank, who recently visited the location.
The enormous site, which also has a necropolis outside its walls that is as large as the city itself, has some ancient walls that have collapsed, obstructing the water courses that would typically drain the area.
“There’s a street lined by ancient walls that connects the upper and lower levels down which rainwater would normally escape but large boulders have fallen in, blocking the flow,”, Gazzini told AFP.
“On the lower level, there’s also dirty water continuously bubbling out of the ground in the middle of the ruins,” she added, adding that neither locals from the nearby village of Shahat nor a representative from the local antiquities division, whom she met there, could explain where it was coming from.
“If water continues to flow in and remains trapped in the site, the retaining wall could collapse, taking with it a large chunk of the ruins,” she said.
Libya's ancient Greek city of Cyrene
The oldest and most significant of the five Greek cities in the area was Cyrene, an ancient Greek and subsequently Roman metropolis.
Eastern Libya now goes by the historical name of Cyrenaica, which it was given. The ancient Necropolis of Cyrene is close by.
A group of Greeks from the island of Thira, commonly known as Santorini, traveled south more than 2,000 years ago in pursuit of a new home. Their voyage came to an end in Libya, a country in modern-day northern Africa.
These Greek immigrants built a new city they named Cyrene. The city, which was established in 631 BC, soon had Battus as its first King in charge.
The earliest influential person in the dynasty that would later become known as the Battiads was Battus.
Every Greek city in what is now the modern Greek mainland and islands maintained trading relations with Cyrene, which was prosperous.
The temples, tombs, agora, gymnasium, and Cyrene Amphitheatre in this important ancient Greek city are all thought to have been influenced by Delphi's famous architectural landmarks.
