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Tibuda
( تيبودا )

Tiboda, Libya.
A photo of
Tibuda:
the stone structure on the beach, relentlessly worked by
the restless waves of the sea, is part of the sunken city
of Tibuda. The black heaps on the left were formed by the
accumulation of seaweed, which the Berbers call
talga.
A truly breathtaking site.
Tibuda
or Tiboda is situated only a few kilometres to the
west of Zwara city (Zuwarah), and sits about seven to ten
meters under water and about 200 meters from the coast. It
is not yet fully explored nor properly catalogued, as it
was discovered only recently. Its close proximity to Zuwarah
city may shed more light about the ancient history of Zuwara,
before its ancient coast was claimed by the sea.
The disappearance of land under the sea is a common occurrence
in nature and the Mediterranean sea had claimed many
coastal cities in the past and it was predicted that it will
continue to do so in the future, especially after the predicted
melting of the arctic and antarctic ice. Scientists have
warned that many coastal cities are at risk and that the
sea level could rise by nine metres (9 m). If scientists
are correct, then Zuwarah itself will join its sister Tibuda
in the near future.
Around Greenland and Iceland, there are already a number of cities
and villages registered as
"endangered places", some of which
are being moved to other localities.
However, it has been already said that Tibuda
was the ancient port of the city of Zuwarah during the
Roman period, and that the port was used to
export the main commodities produced by the Zuwaran communities,
mainly salt, lime and gypsum. The evidence for this comes
from its Roman name.
D. Haynes,
in his
An Archaeological And Historical
Guide To The Pre-Islamic Antiquities of Tripolitania (p.
136.), gives a list of the names of the towns and villages
that formed the stations along the Roman road across the
coastal Tripolitania. Based on the Roman pictorial road-map
of the Roman Empire, the Tabula
Peutingeriana, and on the
evidence preserved by the road milestones along this road,
he gives the following names: Sabratha, Ad
Ammonem, Casas, and Gypsaria (Marset
Tibuda).
Casas has been identified with Zuwarah, and Gypsaria
(or Tibuda) is clearly related to gypsum, which indicates
that the area around Tibuda could have also produced
gypsum, the reason of which the port may have been built
in that locality. The name
Marset
Tibuda clearly
indicates that it was a seaport (marsa),
from
marina, which survives today
in the local language in another name: Elmers (Zuwara
Marina), the current
seaport
of Zuwara, a few miles east
of the city.
However, it is not known yet if the port, like many other
sites along the Libyan coast, was in existence before
the Romans had arrived; only archaeological analysis
of sunken Tibuda would indicate if the Phoenicians
had an earlier connection with the buried port, or even if it were pre-Phoneician!

Tiboda, Libya.
This is the view from the other side of the seaweed structure
in the first photo. There was another stone structure on
this side similar to the stone structure in the first photo,
before it was bulldozed into a pile of stone by the beach
for the seaweed to gradually cover. No archaeological studies
have been taken so far to uncover what lays beneath this
stone structure, nor were there any underwater studies to
catalogue the actual city a few hundred yards into the sea!

Marine wildlife by the beach of Tiboda. The black strips
are seaweed and grass that accumulate into those large
dark (brown-black) structures shown in the previous photos.
Libya
’
s 2000-kilometer-long coastline offers a unique opportunity
to divers and underwater explorers to see what has never been
seen before, including a large number of wrecks, sunken archaeological
cities and sites (many of which are certainly to be discovered),
and gold, supposedly lost to pirates and ships from the Second
World War. Some tour operators offer cruises along the coast,
with onboard diving facilities.
The most popular diving destinations include Janzour, Tajoura
and Zwara or Zuwarah.
Unfortunately,
Tiboda is currently closed to public viewing without a written
permission from the Libyan Board of Tourism and Traditional
Industries. We can arrange tours to the sunken site only if
visitors can secure a written permit from the
Libyan
Board of Tourism.
Please do not attempt to visit the site without written permission
no matter what your guide tells you, as breaking the law could land you
in trouble with the authorities.

The view of Tiboda beach facing the sunken
city.
From what has been explored so far and from what has been
released to the public, Tiboda looks like a small city with
stone columns and building structures, thought to have been
built thousands of years ago, and may have been the ancient seaport of ancient Casas (Zuwarah); from which gypsum, salt and probably other local produce were exported to Europe.
There is no doubt that the site is very ancient because
among the finds were remains of Roman villas and buildings, mosaic pieces and
pottery. This conclusion is evidenced by the archaeological remains
found south of Tibuda. These remains or ruins have always been
there and were always part of Zuwarah's history. They are located
about four kilometres (4 km) west of Zuwara, and the
local Berbers call them
ighermawen
, the plural form of
aghrem ('the castle'), from the fact that the remains constituted a number of
ancient castles.
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