Leptis Magna

Leptis Magna, or Lepcis Magna as it is sometimes spelled, was a prominent city of the republic of Carthage, and later, of the Roman Empire. Its ruins are located 62 miles southeast of Carthage, near Tripoli in the modern country of Libya.

New discoveries

In June 2005 it was revealed that archaeologists from the University of Hamburg had been working along the coast of Libya when they uncovered a 30 ft length of five colorful mosaics created during the 1st or 2nd century AD. The mosaics show with exceptional clarity depictions of a warrior in combat with a deer, four young men wrestling a wild bull to the ground, and a gladiator resting in a state of fatigue, staring at his slain opponent. The mosaics decorated the walls of a cold plunge pool in a bath house within a Roman villa at Wadi Lebda in Leptis Magna. The gladiator mosaic is noted by scholars as one of the finest examples of representational mosaic art ever seen — a "masterpiece comparable in quality with the Alexander mosaic in Pompeii." The mosaics were originally discovered in 2000, but were kept secret to avoid looting. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1651931,00.html

Related Topics:
June 2005 - University of Hamburg - Ft - Mosaic - 1st - 2nd century - Bath house - Wadi Lebda - Pompeii - 2000

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