Fly directly to Tripoli, a favored destination for caravans carrying slaves, gold and ivory as late as the nineteenth-century. Explore Tripoli’s citadel whose museum houses an excellent introduction to Libyan art from exquisite mosaics and ancient sculpture to Berber jewelry. Wander through old Tripoli where merchants would dispatch large amounts of goods to trans-Saharan traders. Under vaulted brick ceilings, twisted streets lead to funduqs where goods and animals were once kept. West of Tripoli lies the ancient site of Sabratha which was built as a terminal for trans-Saharan traders. It was enlarged by the Romans who built a spectacular theater with seating for 5,000 and decorated its monumental buildings with statuary and fine marble. Further east are the remains of Leptis Magna – one of the most extraordinary sites in the Mediterranean. With the wealth acquired from olive oil and grain, and the largesse of Emperor Septimus Severus, the city became one of the finest cities of the Roman Empire. Admire its triumphal arch and its newly opened museum. This magnificent site is extensive, uncrowded and still being excavated.

Drive south alongside the Jabal Nafusa, the Western Mountain, which is home to Libya’s Berbers. The relative isolation of the Berber communities has meant not only the survival of their language and close kinship ties but also their quite distinct urban forms and housing styles. Along the drive, examples of their troglodyte architecture and granaries can be seen. In the late afternoon arrive in Ghadames, one of the most ancient city-oasis of the Libyan Sahara and the southernmost limit of Roman control in the region. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its fragile houses of clay and unfired brick are decorated inside with whitewash and continue to preserve a degree of coolness in the height of summer. Enjoy a walking tour through the three-mile-square old city where the second floor of each house is linked with others via the covered walkways that criss-cross the city like galleries.

Fly from Tripoli to the area known as Cyrenaica, the Hellenized region of eastern Libya. Admire the country’s greatest example of mosaic art at the site of Qasr Libia – a magnificent, Byzantine-era series of some fifty scenic floor mosaics left in situ. Wander through the ancient cities of Cyrene and Apollonia before flying home from Tripoli.

Group size is limited to 20 travelers