Visit Al Bayda, Libya
Al Bayda is the largest town in the vicinity of the archaeological sites of Cyrene and Apollonia. It is located inland and a good base for a few nights in the area.
Temple of Aesculapius, Al Bayda, Libya
Al Bayda is the largest town in the vicinity of the archaeological sites of Cyrene and Apollonia. It is located inland and is rather nondescript, but is a good base for a few nights in the area.
There is very little of interest to note in the town, except for the Temple of Aesculapius, which is often excluded from itineraries as it is not as spectacular or significant as Cyrene and Apollonia.
The Temple of Aesculapius
The Temple of Aesculapius (the god of healing) is situated on the edge of Al Bayda, opposite the Omar al-Mukhtar University. The museum here has been closed for several years and the site is usually deserted. The outline of the temple is said to have been copied from the little-known Greek city of Ballagrai and the ruins have been dated to the 4th century BC.
The main reason to visit this site is to see the rare representations of silphium (a plant which was hugely important for trade and medicine in ancient Cyrenaica) on the columns in the south-western corner of the temple. Please ask your guide if you would like to make a brief stop here.
The cave of Haua Fteah
There is one other site in the area which can be visited very quickly during your stay in Cyrenaica. The cave of Haua Fteah was first excavated in the 1950s by a Cambridge archaeologist, who dated the human remains he found as being around 40,000 years old.
More recent excavations, in 2007 and 2008 have found that the remains are in fact more likely to be over 100,000 years old. The new findings are therefore essential to the understanding of the development of humans in Africa and of prehistoric life in Libya.
The cave is a short walk from the main road and will only take about thirty minutes to visit.