Museums Al Saraya Al Hamra. Illustrated guide

The Museum is housed in Al Saraya Al Hamra, the Red Castle, an imposing outpost on the Medina. It was built in the 1980s to contain and preserve many finds from the archaelogical excavations of Lybian cities.

The collection has grown to include evidence of the various populations and cultures that have inhabited Lybian territory over the centuries.

The current dispaly, organised with the help of UNESCO, is arranged on four floors. The ground level includes the Pre-Historic Period, the section on Lybian Tribes, the Punic Period and Greek and Roman Cultures. The second floor houses statues, pottery and coins dating from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. The third floor is devoted to Islamic periods. The top level concerns the history of modern Lybia and the Natural Sciences.

Al Saraya Al Hamra is a treasure trove of unexpected beauty, a modern museum to be visited as a propolgue and epilogue to an adventure in Lybia.

Bon voyage!

(From the introduction to the volume by Edris Ghatanash)