Sabratha

Like Cyrene before it, Sabratha followed the predictable trajectory of a onetime Greek colony on the North African coast.

First, it was a receptacle for Mediterranean goods coming southwards, and a marketplace for exotic African goods coming from sub-Sahara.

Later, the whole city was taken over by the Romans, who raised great temples to both local and imperial gods.

There are remnants of a Christian basilica built by Justinian too, along with the grand mosaics that once adorned the interior.

However, the piece de resistance is the ancient theatre, which erupts from the desert in a series of lurching Doric peristyles and arcades.