Libyan archaeologists battle to save ancient Greek ruins in east of country

Archaeologists are fighting to save the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient Greek ruins of Cyrene and Apollonia in the eastern part of Libya.

They were first targeted by jihadist groups in the chaos following the 2011 fall of longtime ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, then ravaged by Storm Daniel in 2023.

Smail Dakhil, who oversees the Museum of Cyrene said the period of fighting between 2014 and 2016 was a very difficult time “due to the lack of security and state institutions”.

"We lived in anxiety and fear for these archaeological pieces and for this civilisational heritage," he said.

The museum houses statues of Apollo and Zeus, and a storage of more than 40,000 rare artefacts salvaged from the ancient city.

"We came up with a plan among colleagues to hide the small statues, gold coins and archives in our homes," he said.

Dakhil said larger sculptures that could not be moved, including a rare female sphinx, were protected by volunteer archaeologists and residents.

“They stood watch over the sites around the clock so no thefts were recorded in Cyrene," he said.

Founded in 631 BCE, Cyrene was one of the greatest and wealthiest cities in the Hellenic world together with its sea port, Apollonia, and later became a Roman capital.

Settlers from the Greek island of Thera, now Santorini, founded it and four other colonies -- Apollonia, Ptolemais, Arsinoe and Berenice -- along the coast of today's eastern Libya.

At its height, Cyrene had as many as 100,000 inhabitants and developed a rich intellectual life centred on the arts, music and science, with theatres and a renowned school of philosophy.

Earthquakes and wars eventually reduced the cities to ruins, and they were only rediscovered in the 18th century.

Tour guide, Hamdi Al-Kailani, said few people know about the two sites describing Cyrene as “breathtaking”.

"I hope in the future many of tourists will come and visit. But right now we see only little, like a small number of groups comes like sometimes monthly and weekly and a few numbers of the tourists," he said.

When Storm Daniel hit in 2023, major floods swept through Derna, about 100 kilometres east of Cyrene, and killing thousands of people.

"The day after, everyone who loves this site came by," said Anis Hamid Younes, who oversees renovation works along a sacred pathway linking upper Cyrene to the Temple of Apollo.

He leads a team that has spent months clearing fallen blocks and rubble, salvaging valuable objects and rebuilding a sanctuary and nearly 60 metres of an antique wall.

Despite what he described as "outdated equipment" and "a lack of resources", Younes said he hoped the area would reopen to visitors in September.

While the storm brought destruction and death, it also resulted in new discoveries.

Archaeologists have since unearthed engravings and funerary offerings hidden among thousands of Green and Roman tombs.

Experts are increasingly concerned about Apollonia, some 20 kilometres away, a third of which has already been submerged by the sea over the centuries.

"Before Daniel, we estimated the risk of losing the site at 50 per cent," said Talal Al-Hasey, a local official at the Department of Antiquities. "Now it's 80 per cent."

He said urgent intervention was needed as some of the structures are completely exposed to marine erosion.

Ahmad Essa Abdulkariem, a senior Department of Antiquities official, for his part dreams that the Libyan state will create a museum worthy of the sites.

"The pieces that exist do not belong to us Libyans to keep them in storage. They belong to the whole world," he said

Essa says he hope the rival authorities in Tripoli and the east will recognise the importance of saving the sites for posterity.

The country remains split between a Tripoli-based, UN-recognised government, and an eastern-based rival authority.

"They must stop thinking there are other priorities ... Oil will run out one day, while these sites will exist forever," he said.