Sabratha

Sabratha is an ancient city in the Zawiya District of Libya, in the region of Tripolitania about 70 kilometers west of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast. It was the westernmost of the ancient three cities of Roman Tripolis, alongside Oea and Leptis Magna, and began as a Phoenician trading post known by the Punic name Tsabratan around 500 BC before passing under Carthaginian and then Roman control. It reached its architectural peak under the Severan dynasty in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, then declined through the Vandal and Byzantine periods and became a minor village once the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb redirected regional trade. Its archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 and is now on the UNESCO endangered list; a 2004 count recorded 102,038 people in the surrounding area.