After decades of isolation, Libya, one of the best-kept secrets of the travel world, has opened up to reveal an unspoiled destination of wonderful diversity. Since its rapprochement with the West, which began in 2000, Libya has shed its image of a pariah state. According to a recent risk report published by Aon, the world's second largest insurance broker, Libya and Greenland were the world's safest territories for travel in 2004.

 

Investment in tourism is a welcome diversification from reliance on oil revenues which account for 60 percent of government revenues and both the government and the private sector are determined to put the country on the international tourist map. In Britain, there is enough interest in the country to warrant the setting up of a specialized company, Simoon Travel, whose proud founder, Amelia Stewart says: "We only go to Libya!"

 

Weekend breaks for Londoners in Tripoli are not a desert mirage. It is a three-hour flight from Heathrow. With its souks, squares, Italianate streets and huge choice of cafes, shops and places of interest, it is the perfect base for a short sojourn in Libya. The magnificent Roman cities of Sabratha and Leptis Magna are within easy reach and it is possible to take a trip into the Jebel Nafusa mountain range and visit the underground houses in the Berber heartland, a landscape of barren mountains and rocky escarpments.

 

The country has proved very popular as a destination for cruise ships. Oceania Cruises' Nov. 5 sailing that calls at two Libyan ports sold out so quickly that the line scheduled another for Nov. 17. It sold out, too. ''We were going to schedule just one voyage to Libya next year, but now have three,'' said Oceania's Tim Rubacky. Two will sail out of Barcelona, one out of Athens.

 

Oceania isn't the only cruise line that's found Libya a booking boom. Silversea Cruises, the first line to call at Libya this year, had four Libya cruises scheduled this year. Next year, it is planning nine. ''We thought these would appeal to the international market, but we are getting a lot of Americans - 52 percent of our Oct. 26 cruise [to Libya] are Americans,'' said Silversea's Brad Ball.

 

Holland America has scheduled seven cruises on two of its ships - the Rotterdam and the Prinsenda - to call at the North African country next year. Other lines scheduling Libya visits in 2006 include Swan Hellenic's Minerva II, Crystal Cruises's Crystal Serenity, and Clipper Cruise Line.

 

Libya's Tourism Minister, Ammar Mabrouk Eltayef recently told the UK-based publicity company 'World Report' that his country had a "huge potential for tourism but lacks the infrastructure... It is not enough just to promote our ancient heritage, the sea, the Sahara, Libyan food, music and folk life; we have to build resorts and hotels."

His views were echoed by the Chairman of Libya's Tourism, Investment and Development Board (TIDB), Dr. Ali F. Aweda. "Our government is now concentrating on developing the infrastructure to boost tourism activities in an effort to diversify the country's economy. With the minimum infrastructure and construction-based activities, Libya needs more foreign investors.”

 

Libya is ultimately planning to welcome ten million visitors per year compared with the current total of 300,000.

 

The authorities embarked on an ambitious plan to fully exploit the country's Mediterranean tourism potentials by 2018. Italian property company Gruppo Norman reportedly signed a US$ 268 million deal with the government to construct a complete holiday resort on Farwa Island near the Tunisian border. The resort will be open to tourists in 2010. Reports by 'The Observer' and 'BBC' say that the signing of the Farwa Island Project, earlier this year, was presided over by Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem.

 

In October 2004, a contract was signed with another Italian firm to establish several tourism resorts in the region of Al Khums, somewhat east of Tripoli.

In April this year, the biggest contract so far in Libya's non-oil sector, worth US$ 1.2 billion, was signed. The Dutch company Ladorado was ordered to construct 10 tourist complexes in the city of Tobruk, to be finalised by 2012.

Tour companies which include Libya on their itineraries offer three main tours: cultural tours, desert treks and a journey to the east coast, which includes a drive through the Green Mountains to the Byzantine mosaics of Qasr Libya. Simoon Travel can also arrange specialist excursions. With a non-arrogant pride Amelia Stewart talks about arranging a trip for a private client who wanted to locate her father's grave on the Tunisian-Libyan border. He was killed by a landmine in 1943 and, armed with a sketch map where the references were in yards, his daughter was able to come as close as possible to the site.

 

Isolated lakes, ruined castles, the magnificence of the Sahara, nights under a canopy of stars, Berber and Tuareg culture, bread cooked under the warm sand, prehistoric rock art and Tripoli Museum with its impressive collection of artifacts from all periods of Libya's rich history, are waiting to be discovered.

 

The towering ubari sand dunes are one of Libya's most spectacular sites. At Umm Al Maa the Tuareg grind shrimps into a paste and bake them in small cakes which dry in the sun.

 

Leptis Magna is a magnificent Roman site which, in its heyday, benefited from the patronage of the founder of the African dynasty of Roman emperors Septimus Severus (b.146). It is still a place of immense splendor: the sands that swept over the site in early modern times prevented pillaging and preserved its glories. Today, its sites are being excavated by Italians, Frenchmen and some Poles. The British never really left, and even published an archeological journal dedicated only to findings in Libya.

 

In 2000, Dr. Marliese Wendowski of the University of Hamburg, discovered one of the finest Roman mosaics at Leptis Magna: a 2,000-year-old depiction of an exhausted gladiator. The find was not widely publicised to ensure that the excavation was not disturbed by looters.

 

In ancient times, Libya was a fascinating place. Its North African coast was first dotted by Phoenecian trading ports and a handful of Greek cities in the east. Then the Romans, bent on expansion and hungry for resources, overran the place. Not long after it was a fully-fledged province with model towns, water projects, with the complicated military and government structures typical of the empire. Some historians believe Libya has never been so organized since.

 

The Romans trapped wild animals in Libya and sent them by the shipload to Rome to be killed in gladiatorial games. They grew olives and exported the oil; at its peak, Africa was producing more olive oil than Italy. They loaded grain by the ton into the holds of their wooden ships. The profits were plowed back into the immense port cities along the coast, with amphitheaters, arches, and lavishly appointed villas.

 

Apart from the Roman ruins other attractions include incredible outdoor galleries of prehistoric rock art painted in hidden cracks and caves inhabited by the earliest Libyan tribes over 12,000 years ago. Depicting scenes of life prior to the desertification of the Sahara when the land was a well-watered savannah teeming with wildlife, these paintings and carvings are beautifully artistic. Although the Tuareg have known about this art for centuries the frescoes did not receive serious academic attention until the 1950s when the Italian explorer Professor Fabrizio Mori located upwards of 1300 sites in the Acacus alone.

 

The total solar eclipse in March 2006 will be a major boom for Libyan tourism. In co-operation with Jannat Tours, a Libyan company run by Omar Nass and Nuri Lamin, Amelia Stewart is planning a trip to Wau-Au- Namus near Sebha in the heart of the desert, where the clear skies will provide one of the best views of the eclipse. The camp will be near an extinct volcano with unforgettable Turareg hospitality. The large crater has three lakes, each a different colour, blue, green and red, surrounded by black and white volcanic sands.

 

Other specialist adventures are also possible: Ghadames and Ghat (November and December respectively) festivals and war memorials. Libya was the scene of some of the fiercest battles between the Allies and the Axis during the Second World War. There are cemeteries, among them the famous cemetery at Torburk, which are expected to attract foreign visitors.

 

In Ghadames, the festival coincides with the date harvest and the ancient doors of the old town are thrown open in celebration of traditional culture: music, dancing, singing and displays of horsemanship. The old town is deserted but it is possible to wander through its labyrinthine alleyways and squares. In Ghat, the festivities include camel racing, poetry recitals and music. Both festive and religious, these gatherings attract tribes from all over the country.

 

Libya is a fascinating and unspoiled country with unique deserts and welcoming people. American tourists have described with amazement how Libyans on the street, "upon learning we were American, would break into smiles and shake our hands just for visiting. At a bakery in one small town, the owner handed us three perfect pieces of baklava and would not let us pay.”

 

The legendary explorer Wilfred Thesiger said: "Here in the desert, I found all that I asked; I knew that I should never find it again.” A trip to Libya could make his words a reality for thousands of tourists.