VI.—The Hunting Baths at Lepcis Magna

Abstract

The Hunting Baths at Lepcis Magna lie on the western fringes of the town, about 100 yards from the sea-shore and about half-way between the mouth of the Wadi er-Saf, which formed the western boundary of the city at its fullest extent, and the defensive wall which enclosed the more compact late-Imperial city. It was found and cleared in 1932–3, under the direction of the late Professor Giacomo Guidi. He was at the time already engaged on the excavation of a number of other major sites, both at Lepcis and Sabratha, and the only contemporary account of the excavation is that contained in the brief weekly reports compiled by the technical foreman in charge of the work. These reports are preserved in the archives of the Superintendency of Monuments and Excavations at Tripoli, and they consist of little more than a summary working-diary of the problems of clearance and consolidation, tasks which, in view of the condition of the vaults, were of necessity undertaken simultaneously. With the exception of these reports, the only record of these buildings as they were at the time of their discovery is contained in a small, but valuable, collection of photographs in the archives of the Superintendency, some of which were taken while the work of restoration was still in its initial stages (pls. xxxv,aandb; XXVI,b–d).