There were five of us — three women and two men. We met up at the Istanbul airport and continued our journey on the same flight. We easily obtained our Libyan visas online in advance paying $63 each. Since 2011, Tripoli International Airport operated only intermittently. During the civil war, it changed hands several times, subjected to repeated bombings and explosions by various parties. Today, 15 years later, the airport has still not been restored. Currently, Libya’s international airport is Mitiga originally built by the Italians in 1923 as an air force base. That is where we landed.
Our guide, Ali, met the group at the airport and took us to dinner before heading to the hotel. Along the way, Ali commented on what we were passing like the lines at gas stations. It is well known that Libya has an abundance of oil. Under Gaddafi, oil revenues funded free education and healthcare for all citizens, state-provided housing and electricity were also free of charge. Oil also covered various other social benefits. Today, a large amount of oil is still being extracted. For one US dollar, you could buy 60 liters of gasoline. It’s cheaper than water, yet there is a shortage of gasoline in the country. As it turns out, neither of Libya’s two oil refineries is currently operational. The country has to sell crude oil and then buy it back in the form of fuel.
Ali also shared some details about his own life. He is 73 years old, married to a Japanese woman, holds a black belt in jiu-jitsu, and is an internationally certified referee. In his youth, Ali went to Japan to study, learned the language, and returned home with a wife who converted to Islam in Libya. They remain married to this day, and their children and grandchildren speak Japanese.
We stayed at the Cleopatra Hotel, with each of us getting a private room. The tour was inexpensive, so I expected modest lodging. However, the room at the Cleopatra turned out to be absolutely magnificent. In the morning, I didn’t even want to get out of the luxurious bed. The breakfast buffet was also good.
Our first stop was the Qasr al-Hajj granary, built by the Berbers presumably in the 13th century. To be honest, when I first saw “granary” on the trip itinerary, I couldn’t imagine what there would be to see. As it turned out, the granary is a unique structure, a kind of ancient communal bank where people could store their goods. The building is of circular shape and contains 114 chambers to match the number of surahs in the Quran. The ground floor was used for storing oil, while the upper chambers were filled with barley and wheat. The walls were covered with a layer of waterproof adobe. Thanks to this, the air remained dry, rodents were kept out, and the grain did not spoil for many years. The building was fortified and could serve as a stronghold in the event of an attack. Caravans of pilgrims traveling to Mecca stopped there leaving behind heavy items or valuables for safekeeping.
Next up was something even more impressive: the fortress of Nalut, or Qasr Nalut. Its purpose was much the same – to serve as a secure communal bank, but while Qasr al-Hajj has a regular structured layout, Nalut is a chaotic jumble of individual chambers belonging to different families. Scrambling through the passageways and peeking into the various rooms was an absolute delight. I couldn’t stop marveling at how such a human anthill could have been pieced together. I found myself liking Libya more and more.
