This is Tulum as it used to be

SABRATHA VS TULUM

If Sabratha were anywhere but in Libya, this pristine coastline would be overrun by resorts of the kind that spoil your view at the almost every turn in Tulum, Mexico. This is Tulum as it used to be, before it was discovered by the package-holiday crowd – a sweeping coastline of white sand and waters of transparent turquoise.

All along the coast from Tripoli to Zuara, with Sabratha at its midpoint, empty roads lead down to empty beaches. There are built-up areas and even occasional half-hearted approximations of resorts, but such places are rare and overflow in summer with Libyan families, not sun-starved Europeans. Elsewhere along this often-deserted coast, you could spend an entire day on the beach and not see another living soul.

The only exception to this rule is pretty special one. In Sabratha itself, the Roman city of the same name dominates the Mediterranean shoreline, a forest of columns in light sandstone rising from the sandy soil where other, more famous beaches have palm trees. Temples to the full pantheon of Roman divinities, traces of the city´s Phoenician origins and ancient Greek inscriptions litter the site within its Byzantine-era wall. Together they form an extraordinary seaside monument to the great civilizations of Mediterranean antiquity.

It was from Sabratha´s port, alongside small beach, that ships set sail for ancient Rome, laden with olive oil destined for Roman tables and elephants earmarked for gladiatorial conquests. Sabratha ranked among Rome´s most prosperous cities on African soil, and for all its claims of fealty to the gods, was known for its devotion to the cult of excess – in the Seaward Baths that overlook the beach and the broad sweep of coastline, fragments of mosaic and marble peer out from beneath centuries´ accumulation of sand and footprints.

On the sandy beach itself, it doesn´t take much imagination to visualize yourself
surrounded by toga-clad Romans enjoying the warm, southern Mediterranean sun. Once in the water the view is exceptional – here stand the impressive Corinthian columns of the Temple of Isis, the goddess of seafarers, on a promontory away to the east; there, the three-storey fortress-like walls of Sabratha´s theatre, one of the most exquisite structures in the ancient Roman empire.

As the Romans knew, swimming here is one of the great bathing experiences on earth, not least because Sabratha is how all seaside resorts once were, albeit a very long time ago.