Assessing the damage

At the end of hostilities a rapid assessment of the condition of a number of major, mainly coastal, sites was undertaken by Blue Shield.Footnote ¹ Shahat was one of the sites visited and the subsequent report states that there was little evidence of damage to the archaeological site, save for some illegal digging and the theft of some ‘pieces’ including part of a mosaic from the House of Jason MagnusFootnote ² (Habsburg Reference Habsburg2011). During the revolution the people of Shahat had protected archaeological remains in and around the ancient city of Cyrene and volunteers from the DoA and the local community had actively guarded sites, stores and museums.

Illegal development and danger to archaeological sites

After the Revolution the attitude of the local community has changed dramatically. An enormous amount of development is now taking place around Cyrene, even within the archaeological site. Illegal developments are taking place on an almost daily basis, clandestine excavations are increasingly commonplace, and there is a growing black market in antiquities. Despite attempts by the Superintendency of Shahat to control the situation by appealing to developers, farmers and land owners to abide by Libyan laws protecting archaeological sites, ancient woodland and historic landscapes, their requests have been met with obstruction, contempt and even threats of violence. Development in and around Cyrene is now completely out of control and there is a great danger that the World Heritage Site (WHS), one of the great jewels of a common Libyan heritage, will be irrevocably despoiled. The seizure of property, often without adequate or any compensation, and strict restrictions imposed by the former regime on land ownership, house ownership and development have dissipated in a post-conflict euphoria. Many in the community appear to believe they are now free to develop their land in whatever way they choose, without reference to the law or the authority of the Department of Archaeology, and archaeological sites and portable antiquities have become a form of booty in the minds of many.

It is not just development for housing and holiday homes that is causing this huge problem, but an expansion of agriculture. Farmers who have owned land for generations and have previously respected laws concerning the disturbance of archaeological monuments on their property are now hiring bulldozers to clear ancient pastures containing archaeological remains, driving new roads across them or converting rough pasture to arable fields. They no longer fear repercussions for such actions but believe that they are free of all restrictions and can do as they please on their own land. Add to this a plethora of paved and unpaved roads, services and pipelines (many promoted by municipal authorities and even central government), and there is a veritable tidal wave of development eroding and destroying the WHS and its surrounding landscape (see Figs 1 and 2). Notwithstanding the local view that their actions are legitimate, most of the new developments are clearly illegal and are contrary to Libyan Heritage Laws; these are still in place after the Revolution. There is a demonstrable need for new development, particularly housing for the present and the next generation, but such developments need to be planned and controlled in such a way that heritage assets are not compromised.

Figure 1.

Breeze-block building erected in the vicinity of the Temple of Demeter, Cyrene. (photo: H. Walda).

Figure 2.

Clandestine excavation of a tomb in the Necropolis of Cyrene. (photo: A. Abdulkariem).

A number of reports have been prepared by the Superintendency of Shahat and others to draw attention to the plight of Cyrene, but despite the undoubted concern of a number of local community leaders, senior figures in the Department of Archaeology in Tripoli and in the Government, it has not proved possible to address the many issues that beset the WHS or to find sustainable solutions. Libya is in transition and it is difficult to confront these issues when greater concerns dominate the Government's agenda. And yet for those of us who see Cyrene and similar sites along the coast or in the deserts of the south as enormous and vital assets for the future of the country, to sit idly by as Libya's unique and world class heritage is threatened by development, is not an option. We must speak out in an attempt to find solutions before it is too late. In the case of a World Heritage Site, such as Cyrene, where the site, suburbs and setting are being permanently and irrevocably disfigured and vital information pertaining to the history of this once great city is lost, the situation could not be more serious.

All the reports sent to the Department in Tripoli, to the Minister of Culture and to the Permanent Libyan Delegation at UNESCO, express an urgent need to protect heritage assets from those seeking to build new homes, holiday developments, infrastructure schemes and to expand farming activities. Most of the land affected by this crisis is held by families with limited title, or is tribal land held in trust by groups of families. Often the sale of land for development is of questionable legality in that there is insufficient evidence of ownership or all parties who can claim title or interest have not been consulted. Ownership and permission to develop is presently agreed within the tribe, so, for a family seeking to build a house, or a developer an estate of holiday homes, once an agreement has been reached socially, it is not important to have any other form of evidence proving ownership or for a grant of planning permission to develop. As a consequence, development is increasing everywhere, even within 300 m of the shoreline, a zone that for generations and by law has been kept free of development, and is now being fenced and developed for holiday homes. The long-term implications of this period of questionable land exchange and development will undoubtedly resonate long into the future. Land values have escalated enormously since the Revolution and this has placed even greater pressure on remaining blocks of historic open ground, woodland, agricultural land and coastline.

Development in and around Cyrene is now spiralling out of control, there are no planning rules or conditions, there is no quality control and certainly no archaeological oversight or recording. Any archaeological sites caught-up in this whirlwind of building activity have been destroyed and the information once locked up within them has been lost forever. The landscape surrounding Cyrene is changing almost daily and certainly for the worse. The magical setting of the archaeological site, set high-up on the escarpment looking north across an upper and lower agriculture-dominated plain to the sea, is being systematically eroded by new roads and poorly sited developments. Ancient vegetation and trees that once dominated this staircase topography, formerly protected by law, is now being bulldozed to make way for high end first and second homes, holiday developments, new approach roads and water pipelines.

Undoubtedly the explosion of new development is in part a reaction to the appropriation of land and building restrictions of the regime which has created a need for new housing stock and a resentment of any form of interference. The last planned major housing scheme for Shahat was in 1986. Between then and 1999 the population of Shahat has expanded by 33% and between 2000 and 2006 by a further 25%. The population of Shahat today is around 35,000 persons. Notwithstanding the need for new homes, planned housing appears to be in the minority and most of the recent developments around Cyrene and along the coast road east of Susa (ancient Apollonia, the port of Cyrene) are holiday homes for seasonal use, or second homes built for holiday use, often in the most conspicuous locations, covering significant acreages of land. Enormous sums of money are being expended on these new developments. Long-term investments are being made by mainly Libyan entrepreneurs, who have little interest in the historic landscapes their developments are blighting, or the direct and collateral impact their activities are having on the heritage resource of this very special place.

How do we protect Libya's heritage?

This wave of development appears to be driven by local people. Although outside money may be fuelling a number of the schemes, it is local people, who are parcelling-up, fencing off and developing their collective lands, largely for the benefit of their fellows, and in an alarming and growing number of cases, to the detriment of National Heritage. When challenged about the destruction of archaeological remains and the natural environment, or the visual impact of building, some landowners have indicated a willingness to halt development in a particular area in exchange for new land elsewhere or for financial compensation from the Government. Most engaged in such activities, however, are annoyed to the point of anger by any form of interference from Government or outside bodies. The great difficulty the Department has in carrying out its duties as curator and guardian of Libyan Heritage is a general ignorance of heritage, a lack of knowledge of the value of archaeological remains for future revenue-earning and employment, and of the long-term benefits of maintaining the historic landscape and biodiversity for quality of life.

One cannot hold back development but it does need to be controlled, ideally within a planning system that seeks to create a better environment for present and future generations. Cyrene and all the other historic centres are desperately in need of a planning framework devised by specialists and operated by trained planning staff within the municipal authorities and the Department of Archaeology, to provide an organized template for sustainable growth without damaging heritage assets or the environment. An essential component of this system has to be enforcement protocols that will allow planning authorities to penalise those who contravene such arrangements.

Similarly, a rigorous, fair and transparent system is required for the conveyance and registration of land, where ownership and title has to be proven before a sale can take place and the transaction can be properly notarised and registered in a National Land Register. A prerequisite for this is a detailed cadastral survey of land within the core site (the area defined by the ancient city walls), the extra-mural cemeteries and farms and the surrounding landscape, with established boundaries defining and dividing land ownership.

Many areas within and surrounding Cyrene are now encumbered by new development including parts of the ancient city near the Temple of Zeus, near the Sculpture Museum, the Eastern Church (which has been badly affected by recent development) and the Sanctuary of Demeter, on the south side of the Wadi Bel Ghadir. The extensive extra-mural cemeteries and ancient farms surrounding the city on the road to ancient Balagrae (modern al-Bayda) and the settlement at Safsaf, together with the stunning long distance views to the north of the city are all under active and on-going threat. The situation is critical and action must be taken soon.

World Heritage Management Plan

A World Heritage Management Plan should be drawn-up for Cyrene following consultation with national and municipal authorities and the local community. Cyrene needs to be systematically assessed by specialists to provide not only an inventory of its archaeological assets and their present condition, but a forward-looking review to determine what the site needs for future cultural resource management, building conservation, biodiversity and tourism. The Plan must be based on detailed discussions with stakeholders (those who live within the protected area, or own or work the land as tennants) and the local population of Shahat. Desk research and field study are needed to provide long-term strategies for the improvement and maintenance of the site, including training and capacity-building for those managing, protecting and promoting Cyrene nationally and internationally.

One of the essential components for the plan should be a defined ‘buffer zone’ for the WHS (Fig. 3). The core site is already defined by the ancient city walls together with an area to the south of the city containing the great religious Sanctuary of Demeter, on the opposite side of the Wadi Bel Ghadir. The ‘buffer zone’ surrounding the core site should encompass land containing extensive cemeteries together with ancient farms, field systems and quarries. A greater ‘buffer zone’ protecting the landscape view and the setting of the site should also be considered. Within these three zones stringent planning procedures will be required to control development through enforceable planning conditions. A moratorium on all forms of development should be considered for the core site, with careful consideration of proposed developments by degree in the inner and outer zones. Some of the key principles to be considered for future development are location, direct impact on archaeological remains and the setting of the WHS, together with size and scale of the development, materials, build-quality, services and sustainability.

Figure 3.

Proposed buffer zones for Cyrene. (based on proposals and a figure put forward in ‘The Green Mountain Project for a Sustainable Future’, phase 1 report, Ramboll 2009; adapted by P. Atkinson).

Other actions to be put in hand soon

• • An inspection of the site by UNESCO

UNESCO has been informed of the critical situation at Cyrene. A report has been sent to the Permanent Libyan Delegation to UNESCO and Cyrene will be discussed at a forthcoming meeting of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Doha. We hope that an investigative inspection of the WHS by UNESCO in company with members of the Permanent Delegation and senior members of the Department of Antiquities and perhaps even his Excellency the Minister of Culture, will take place in the second half of 2014.

• • The Department of Archaeology in Shahat needs to be proactive

The Department of Archaeology in Shahat needs to gather together a network of supporters for the cause of protecting the core site of Cyrene and future ‘buffer zones’. A new ‘Friends of Cyrene’ has recently been formed and in concert with the ‘Friends’ and other organisations the Department must begin to develop a strong and active pressure group to combat illegal and destructive development. Links should be forged with Libyan universities and other academic bodies, including the International Missions working in Libya, to influence and gain the support and backing of local, regional and national bodies, including the police, the judiciary and Government, to protect archaeological sites by enforcing Libyan law.

• • Libyan heritage laws need to be reviewed

The present laws protecting Libyan heritage are all-embracing but they are complex to interpret, they are not enforced, and rarely have been in the past. Libyan Heritage Laws should be reviewed, simplified and brought up-to-date, so that they can be enshrined in the new Libyan Constitution. The Ministry of Culture and the Department of Archaeology working in concert with leading heritage law specialists, UNESCO and others should be encouraged to undertake this essential work in the near future. One important aspect amongst many is the issue of the Libyan State purchasing or exchanging land in a fair and transparent manner, to secure the long-term future of important archaeological sites and landscape setting.

• • Training of Department staff is required

The Department of Archaeology should be assisted through various forms of training and capacity-building to become more effective and a better-respected cultural resource manager and custodian of Libyan Heritage. International Missions should be encouraged to assist with the process by offering internships, placements and opportunities for language and IT training and post-graduate study to those who will become the next generation of Libyan cultural resource managers, archaeological curators within the planning process, archaeologists, marine archaeologists, museum curators, archivists, conservators, archaeological specialists, site managers, and security officers.

• • ‘Outreach’ in the community is required

The Department must focus on communication; they must be proactive and engage with every level of the local community, including schools, Universities, the general public and the business community, to develop a grass-roots network of support. Local people need to be told about the heritage that surrounds them. With knowledge will come respect and eventually support for protective measures, to ensure that Cyrene survives for future generations to enjoy and derive employment and revenue from.

A number of private and volunteer initiatives have been established to provide presentations in local schools and guided tours of the site to schoolchildren and residents by members of the Shahat Department, in their own time supported by the students and staff of Omar Mukhtar University, al-Bayda (Abdulkariem, Reference Abdulkariem2013). Other initiatives worthy of mention include the publication of a broadsheet (Afaq Atherya, Archaeological Horizons), providing archaeological and historical information for the layman, with news and comment, produced privately by Dr Khaled Haddar of the University of Benghazi and a glossy magazine promoting Libyan Heritage, produced by the former Chairman of the Department, Dr Salah Aghab, shortly before he left office. Most recently, his Excellency the Minister of Culture agreed to fund the printing, for free distribution to schools, universities and the Department, of substantial numbers of an up-to-date Arabic language guide to the archaeology of Tripolitania. The Arabic guide, translated from an English language version produced by the Society for Libyan Studies, (Kenrick, Reference Kenrick2009) was translated by the Society with grant aid from Shell Libya and gifted to Libya. Sponsorship for an Arabic language version of a recently produced archaeological guide to Cyrenaica (Kenrick, Reference Kenrick2013) is presently being sought, in the hope that this guide to the antiquities of eastern Libya, including Cyrene, can also be broadly circulated for free, to help engage the present and coming generation in protecting and promoting their heritage. A guidebook to the Fazzan is also being planned.

Notwithstanding these important initiatives, it is now time for the Shahat Department, the Head Office in Tripoli and Departments across the country to officially recognise the need for and the importance of ‘outreach’ in the community as an integral part of their function. The Department must now take the lead to develop a heritage outreach strategy for the nation, to be carried out with conviction, enthusiasm and a budget commensurate with the importance of the task.

First steps

More practical and immediate solutions may be found for challenging situations:

• • Consideration should be given to direct State intervention to protect the core site and important and threatened parts of the ‘buffer zone’ by bringing these assets into public ownership – by purchasing the most important and historic blocks of land.

• • The Department and the Government could consider paying local landowners and farmers a small annual subsidy, in the form of a management agreement, to keep vital blocks of the historic landscape in protective agricultural use, with a clear understanding that certain types of agricultural activities and no development is permitted.

• • There has to be encouragement from outside and from the highest levels of the Libyan Government to enforce the laws that protect heritage assets. This cannot be done without the cooperation of the police and the judiciary and without a planning system that seeks to bring order and control to all forms of development.

• • Just before the Revolution, a large block of land south of Shahat was designated as the site of a new ‘Garden City’. A concept design for the new town was submitted (Edward Cullinan Architects, 2012) complete with street grid, services, houses (including a variety of house types), commercial premises, offices, schools, public open space and even schemes for planting and biodiversity. The boundaries of the site were established just before the Revolution and some roads formed, but the scheme faltered over land purchase. This site could now be the key to relieving development pressures elsewhere around Cyrene. The Government should be encouraged to purchase the land outright and thereafter provide incentives for land exchange and for developers to build new homes to the design set down in the concept document. The standards of build should be high for every aspect of the development, to provide a good quality of life for future residents, a positive inducement for families to live in the ‘Garden City’ and an incentive for developers to invest there.

• • The development of the town of Shahat, established in 1965 to encourage the re-location of families living within the archaeological site, has, over time, destroyed the great south east necropolis and suburb of Cyrene. The modern town continues to grow, eroding further parts of the necropolis and ancient suburban landscape. A moratorium on further expansion of the town should be declared, with new development focused to the south within the Garden City. At the same time, the infrastructure and the housing stock of Shahat should be improved. Alongside major improvements to the archaeological site, the town should become ‘the gateway to Cyrene’, with a formal approach and perhaps a visitor centre forming parts of the linkage. Although the modern settlement has destroyed an incalculable number of standing and buried tombs, a significant number of ancient structures survive in the shadow of modern buildings, right across the town, including a significant number of funerary monuments within the former military base and adjacent motel precinct. Each one of these sites could become a protected archaeological garden; a historic, green open space to lift the character of the modern town, to link it more closely to the archaeological site and to make it a special and attractive place to live.

Hope for the future

Notwithstanding the extreme efforts of the staff of the Department of Archaeology and local people to protect Cyrene during the Revolution, the ancient city, suburbs and surrounding landscape are today under greater threat than at any other time in its 2,630 year history. In the euphoria of successfully throwing off the yoke of the regime, local landowners, farmers and entrepreneurs are now bent on developing large tracts of land without thought of impact on archaeological remains or the long term future of one of Libya's greatest archaeological treasures. The laws and protocols protecting Libyan heritage, laid down and refined in the early years of the Kingdom and enshrined in Libyan law during the regime, are now being flouted and ignored wholesale despite the pleas and protestations of the Department of Archaeology, the universities, international missions and all who love and care for the World Heritage Site of Cyrene. We can only hope that a growing swell of protest about illegal and destructive development in and around Cyrene and other major archaeological sites, including Lepcis Magna, Sabratha and the great historic centres of the south, will gain traction with local, regional, national and International authorities to protect Libya's world class heritage before it is too late.