Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 20060327zf_LeptisMagnaArena
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
After a decent
sandwich lunch at the little
restaurant near the entrance to Leptis Magna, we headed off to the huge
circus (a.k.a. arena) located about a mile from the main city. It is huge:
about 450m x 100m (1460x330 feet), and would have seated around 16,000
spectators. Originally it had a raised floor, and there would have been
rooms and passageways underneath where "performers" (including gladiators)
got ready. Behind the circus to the left, the hillside drops very steeply
to sea level, where there is a flat area that used to be the hippodrome
(racetrack). The doorways on that side go through to the hippodrome
seating, although most of the tunnels are now blocked. The slope of the
tiers was dizzying.
Most of Leptis Magna has poor-quality
satellite imagery (at the moment), but the frame covering the circus
is very impressive on the Google
satellite map.
