It has been a long time since the last review of Leptis Magna. This is not too surprising given that it has been on the In Danger list for almost a decade and even before the civil war, Libya was not an easy country to visit. I was able to visit Leptis Magna in May 2025 on a standard 4-day Libya tour with a couple of friends using the company Rozaria. At the time of my visit Libyan tourism seemed to be expanding after a couple years of relative stability, the evisa system had been successfully rolled out and mostly debugged and a number of new tour operators had appeared on the scene to compete for business.

Leptis Magna needs very little introduction, the average WHS or Roman Empire enthusiast will most likely have heard of it and descriptions of the site are typically filled with superlatives. It had been on my wish list for a long time and I was excited to finally visit after 2 previous failed attempts to secure a visa (in 2007 and 2023). Having visited many other roman ruins over the intervening years the question became would Leptis Magna still live up to the hype? In short, the answer is yes. The longer answer is a little more nuanced. There are no unique elements specific to Leptis Magna itself. Colonnaded streets, forum, baths, theatre, arches, market area, port, mosaics, hippodrome, amphitheatre, etc are all present and in all honesty more outstanding examples of each of these individual elements exists elsewhere in the world. What sets it apart is the fact that it was a major Roman city, given special attention by Emperor Septimius Severus, which was mostly abandoned by the time of the Islamic conquest of the region in the 7th century and was not continuously built over and "modernized" but left to disappear under the sand. Thus a huge area remains intact, well preserved and is presented as a whole. The famous beautiful backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea does not disappoint either. In my mind only Pompeii could be considered superior though the crowds there can be distracting.

We visited Leptis Magna on a Friday morning which is probably the most likely time for it to be busy with local visitors. We were handed over to a very knowledgeable local guide and spent the next few hours covering most of the grounds at a modest pace. Because the hippodrome/amphitheatre area is a bit distant from the rest of the city we were driven over there at the end which meant we drove past the remains of the port which lies between but didn't stop to see it properly. While there were quite a few families and a couple other small tour groups present at the same time as us, the site is so vast that it still manages to feel like you have the place to yourself most of the time. I had intentionally not researched the site much prior to visit hoping to still get that wow factor which I got at the amphitheatre as you approach it from above with beautiful views over the sea. Other personal highlights were the details of the market and baths.

I can happily say that there doesn't appear to be any additional damage to the ruins from the recent fighting around Libya but at the same time there are also clear signs of neglect creeping in too (litter, overgrown vegetation, broken amenities, etc). The most disappointing aspect of a visit right now though is the fact that all museums in the country are still currently closed, including those onsite so there is no way to see what is supposed to be a very nice collection of mosaics and artifacts :(