To Libya. Today our party ambled off down the coast from Tripoli to a Leptis Magna, a ruined city that was founded by the Phoenecians, taken by the Romans and finally ruled by the Byzantine empire until the end of its days.

Now there are ruins and then there is Leptis Magna. The city is a marvellous collection of crumbled buildings – baths, temples, a forum, a theatre with perfect acoustics – demonstrated by our guide who sang “All That I Do, I Do For You”, In Arabic – and a huge amphitheatre overlooking the cobalt blue Mediterranean Sea. Excavations have been carried out over the centuries but it was Italian archeologists who really got the centuries of layered earth moving off site in the 1920s.

Given its position on a calm bay with miles of beach in each direction, you can see why this was no hardship posting for the the average Roman. Much better than, say, being sent to freezing, wet England with its restive Celts and other unruly locals (how little things change, really). Leptis fulfilled a similar role to Cape Town – first a watering point for ships, then a city of trade, on which it grew fat, until the inevitable decline set in.

Property prices, boosted by expats must have been stratospheric, too. And why not: the living was good, the sea, unlike Cape Town’s, is actually fit for swimming in, and the magnificent public baths, built by Hadrian … well, let’s just say the Long Street Baths never stood a chance.

Pictures: The theatre overlooking the sea at Leptis Magna, top, and the remains of Hadrian’s fine bathhouse – makes Long Street look shabby. Photos: Paul Ash

Related posts:

1. Libya: Ancient and modern under a layer of dust
2. Hard times loom again for once-loved Cape Town relic
3. Back-in-time travel: 51 years ago in Cape Town docks
4. Fly to Libya direct from Joburg
5. Runaway dog causing flight havoc at Cape Town International