2023-09-20 10:25:14
The imposing ancient Greek site of Cyrene, in Libya, has been classified since 2016 by UNESCO as world heritage in danger. It is at risk of collapse following devastating floods that hit the east of the country, according to testimonies and an archaeologist.
It is a “gigantic site and the largest Greek colony, a city built between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century BCE,” explains Vincent Michel, head of the French archaeological mission in Libya.
The first people who inhabited it came from Thera, the current island of Santorini, and settled there for its fertile land and abundant water.
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“In the lower part of the site, we also have dirty water coming out of the ground in the middle of the ruins in heavy boils and continuously,” she adds, stressing that the villagers and an official from the local antiquities department present on the site alongside him are unaware of its origin.
Worse still, the Apollo Fountain, this natural pool dug in a cave which collected clear spring water, “was transformed into a large bathtub where bubble bath would have been poured”, laments Claudia Gazzini who took photos and videos of the places.
All this because of “five hours of torrential rain which poured on the site and the neighboring village of Shahat”, on the night of September 10 to 11, she emphasizes, also expressing concern for the theater Greek where large blocks collapsed in the middle of the stands.
Local people who like to walk on this site overlooking a precipice offering a breathtaking view of the Mediterranean are concerned regarding the prospect of winter rains, one of them confides to Claudia Gazzini in a video: “If the infiltrations “water continues and the water remains blocked on the site, the surrounding wall might collapse and take away a large part of the ruins,” she explains.
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Weakened foundations
For Vincent Michel, who knows the site well and was able to analyze post-flood images, “for the moment there has been no major destruction in Cyrene, the monuments are still standing”.
In the Greek theater, large blocks collapsed in the middle of the stands. Cyrene, Libya, September 18, 2023. [Claudia Gazzini/International Crisis Group – X (ex-Twitter)]But “the torrents of water, earth and stones have ravished the roads, in particular the royal road, and the main damage is to come because the water has circulated widely and weakened the foundations of the monuments”, he worries. -he. “Knowing that the stone is of poor quality in the region, the monuments risk falling apart due to lack of good foundations.”
Among its monuments, Cyrene is home to “one of the largest temples of Antiquity, that of Zeus which is larger than the Parthenon in Athens”, underlines the expert, contacted by telephone in France.
The other concern is the huge necropolis to the north of the site, just outside the surrounding wall, which “received hundreds of cubic meters of water, which may have displaced and filled tombs”. Cyrene “which was more than ten kilometers in circumference, represents one of the rare sites where the city of the dead was as large as that of the living”, notes Vincent Michel.
Risks of looting
He expressed particular concern regarding the risk of looting at this exceptional site where “funeral portraits from the Roman period and statuettes of unique Greek deities” had been found during the latest excavations.
What reassures him is that the Department of Antiquities of Libya “is already very mobilized” and has requested help from the Italian archaeological mission for Cyrene and French teams for Apollonia, the ancient port of Cyrene, and Latrun , another ancient site.
The idea, according to him, is to cooperate “with local authorities in coordination with theUNESCO to identify the major points of fragility of the monuments, record deterioration”, restore water circulation and “start consolidating the monuments”.
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