The Mediterranean coastal sites of Sabratha and Leptis Magna are undoubtedly among the finest Roman ruins in world, while the Greek-founded cities of Apollonia and Cyrene are magnificent in haunting ruin. The adobe border town of Ghadames, long an important stop astride the great trans-Saharan caravan routes, provides a charming and intriguing glimpse of how traditional architecture effectively tamed the relentless desert heat. But the mighty Sahara also reveals tantalizing, movie-set perfect, palm-fringed oases, and the stunning, striated limestone escarpments and cliffs of the Jebel Akakus, sandblasted for eons into fantastical shapes.