Qasr Libya

Qasr Libya is located about 50 miles to the west of Cyrene, and about 80 kilometres west of Al Beida. The city has a small but fantastic museum with most extraordinary collections of Byzantine mosaics that you will find in North Africa. The panels come from the town’s ruined 6th-century Byzantine eastern church and are considered to be among the greatest of Libya’s archaeological treasures. Another excavated church, known as the western church, is part of the later Islamic castle which today houses the museum.

The craftsmen drew inspirations from natural and folk scenes of daily life, with pagan influences being incorporated into Christian panoply. The mosaic floor was discovered in 1957 by some labourers working. The name Qasr Libya means the “castle of Libya”. Further suggested that it may have been related to the ancient village of Olbia. This settlement was the seat of a Bishopric during the Byzantine period in classical Libya. The city was attacked several times by various invaders but it was however restored to its glory by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 539 AD.