Leptis

Leptis, also known as Lepcis Magna, is an ancient city on the Mediterranean coast in the region of Tripolitania, in present-day Libya. It is located near the coast about 130 kilometers east of Tripoli, near the modern town of al-Khums. The site preserves the remains of a major Libyan and Punic-leaning trading city that developed through the Punic and Roman periods.

The city was founded in the early first millennium BCE by Libyan-Berber populations and later came under Punic influence as a Phoenician trading post. It grew as a significant harbor and commercial center connecting Africa with the central Mediterranean. Under Roman rule from the 1st century BCE onward, Lepcis Magna expanded into a prominent imperial city. The emperor Septimius Severus, born there, sponsored extensive construction that left a large Roman city plan including a forum, basilicas, markets, baths, and a theater, as well as a monumental harbor.

In late antiquity the city remained important but declined after the Western Roman Empire and later periods of upheaval. By the medieval era it had largely fallen into ruin, although its monumental remains continued to be studied and reused in occasional Christian and Islamic phases.

The ruins were surveyed and excavated during the 19th and 20th centuries and are today among the best-preserved Roman sites in North Africa. Leptis Magna was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 as the Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna. The site provides important insights into Roman urbanism, architecture, and provincial life, as well as the broader history of Libyan antiquity.