Accompanied by forty-year-old Faraj Bozahra, we arrived at Freedgha Oasis located in the desert, south of Jaghbub on the Libyan-Egyptian border, surrounded by a large number of ancient tombs carved in rock, dug up and vandalized by anonymous assailants.

We witnessed the same sight the next day upon our arrival at Malfa Oasis, 30 kilometers north of Freedgha Oasis, but lesser tombs were available here due to the area’s high level above the ground, which contributed to keeping some of them far from vandals’ reach but not natural factors’.

Accompanied by forty-year-old Faraj Bozahra, we arrived at Freedgha Oasis located in the desert, south of Jaghbub on the Libyan-Egyptian border, surrounded by a large number of ancient tombs carved in rock, dug up and vandalized by anonymous assailants.

We witnessed the same sight the next day upon our arrival at Malfa Oasis, 30 kilometers north of Freedgha Oasis, but lesser tombs were available here due to the area’s high level above the ground, which contributed to keeping some of them far from vandals’ reach but not natural factors’.

Bozahra, a historian and Head of Libyan Tourism and Tourist Investment Organization at Jaghbub, has bitterly addressed the damage of the most important tourist attractions in Jaghbub Oasis, 285 kilometers south of Tobruk along the Egyptian Siwa Oasis. “These cemeteries date back to hundreds of years B.C. and are an important hallmark of this region,” he said.

In search of treasures

Fifty-five-year-old researcher and historian Mohammed Sharef believes vandalism of the tombs was inflicted out of the belief that they contain gold and jewelry. “Those vandals are, of course, ignorant of archeology since, unlike ancient Egyptians, the Libyans have not kept any jewelry or other personal valuables in the tombs of their dead,” he commented and added, “There are no traces of well-defined civilizations in this region as the burial was conducted en masse with no distinctive tombs indicating any social differences among those buried. I believe that items found in these tombs have no significant value and antique dealers are well aware of this fact.”

Differences between the two neighbors

Sharef traced back the history of these cemeteries to two hundred years B.C. (Ptolemaic Age) pointing out to the fact that Jaghbub Oasis was not known before that date. He described it as relatively modern, compared to other historical oases such as Siwa Oasis in Egypt and Ghadames and Gallo oases in the Libyan Desert.

He, however, did not underestimate its importance and attributed its deliberate neglect to the former regime’s practices. “This negligence may perhaps be a result of the political conflicts between Libya and Egypt over the border region and the Egyptians’ insistence on its affiliation to Egypt and historical relation with pharaonic civilization of the adjacent Egyptian Siwa Oasis,” he explained.

Libyan graves

He, nevertheless, excluded such possibility and continued, “Freedgha ancient graves are quite different from their counterparts in Egypt in terms of embalming methods, which experts have proven to be of a Libyan nature consistent with what was found in other tombs in southern Libya and the Libyan Acacus Mountains.”

Furthermore, the pharaohs did not cover the head of their mummified bodies while Libyans covered the entire body in addition to the fact that Libyans wound their dead bodies, shroud from right to left unlike the Egyptians who did it the other way round, according to Sharef.

Despite the similarity of materials used for mummification such as olive leaves and honey, the ‘burlap’ used by the two civilizations was not locally produced. It was imported from China, which represented the early stages of the fabric industry there, he added.

Cemetery vandalism

Encouraged by the chaotic security situation and absence of the rule of the law, defacement of archaeological sites in Libya has grown dramatically since the revolution. Attacks on both ancient and modern cemeteries have also accelerated in recent years out of both materialistic as well as religious motives.

Chief of the Local Council of Jaghbub Osman Awami said, “Maintenance and protection of these sites requires huge resources given the vast and uncontrollable border region stretching deep into the desert.”

Awami also complained of the paucity of resources in the region, particularly the lack of security, despite the heavy deployment of border guards along the Libyan- Egyptian border during recent months.

Negligence and incompetence

Head of the region’s security committee Ali Hashem stressed that protection of the archaeological sites requires huge resources and a large number of guards to have the ability of assigning special patrols to protect these archeological places, whose entrances and exits are difficult to control, particularly since the region in which they exist is a border area where smuggling is highly active.

These graves, like other archaeological sites in Libya, are facing formidable difficulties caused by negligence. Indifference to these archeological monuments, implanted by past colonialists and the former regime to enslave the region’s inhabitants, has significantly contributed to underestimating these landmarks.

Although numerous youth and civil organizations are actively demanding to  protect these monuments as a pillar of Libya’s future economy, especially since several such ancient monuments were built by the indigenous population and are part of Libya’s ancient civilizations, the role of the authorities for meeting these demands, among other ones, is still absent.