Editing Leptis Magna (section)

===Excavation===
Today, the site of Leptis Magna is the site of some of the most impressive ruins of the Roman period.

[[File:Leptis Magna ruins, Virginia Water (1) (geograph 3935706).jpg|thumb|Leptis Magna ruins, in the [[United Kingdom]], by the [[Virginia Water Lake]]]]
Part of an ancient temple was brought from Leptis Magna to the British Museum in 1816 and installed at the [[Fort Belvedere, Surrey|Fort Belvedere]] royal residence in England in 1826. It now lies in part of [[Windsor Great Park]].{{sfn|''The Atlantic'', 10 January 2018}} The ruins are located between the south shore of [[Virginia Water]] and Blacknest Road close to the junction with the [[A30 road|A30]] London Road and [[Wentworth Estate|Wentworth Drive]].
[[Image:Leptis Magna Theatre.jpg|thumb|The Roman theatre]]
When Italians conquered [[Italian Libya]] in the early 20th century, they dedicated huge efforts to the rediscovery of Leptis Magna. In the early 1930s, Italian archeological research was able to show again the buried remains of nearly all the city.{{sfnp|Musso|2010}}{{Page needed|date=August 2020}} A 4th to 3rd century{{nbsp}}BC necropolis was found under the [[Roman theatre (structure)|Roman theatre]].

In June 2005, it was revealed that archaeologists from the [[University of Hamburg]] had been working along the coast of Libya when they uncovered a 30 [[Foot (length)|ft]] length of five colorful [[mosaic]]s created during the 1st or 2nd century. The mosaics show with exceptional clarity depictions of a warrior in combat with a deer, four young men wrestling a wild bull to the ground, and a gladiator resting in a state of fatigue and staring at his slain opponent.  The mosaics decorated the walls of a cold plunge pool in a ''balneae'' within a [[Roman villa]] at Wadi Lebda in Leptis Magna. The gladiator mosaic is noted by scholars as one of the finest examples of representational mosaic art ever seen—a "masterpiece comparable in quality with the [[Alexander Mosaic]] in [[Pompeii]]."  The mosaics were originally discovered in the year 2000 but were kept secret in order to avoid looting. They are currently on display in the [[Leptis Magna Museum]].{{sfn|''The Times'', 13 June 2005}}

There were reports that Leptis Magna was used as a cover for tanks and military vehicles by pro-Gaddafi forces during the [[Libyan Civil War (2011)|First Libyan Civil War]] in 2011.{{sfn|''The Times'', 14 June 2011}} When asked if the historic site could be targeted in an airstrike, [[NATO]] refused to rule out the possibility of such an action, saying that it had not been able to confirm the rebels' report that weapons were being hidden at the location.{{sfn|CNN, 14 June 2011}} Shortly after the war, Libyan archaeologist Hafed Walda reported that Leptis Magna, along with nearby Rasaimergib Fort and the western [[Tripolis (region of Africa)|Tripolis]] of [[Sabratha]], had "so far seen no visible loss" from either fighting on the ground or [[2011 military intervention in Libya|bombings conducted by international forces]].{{sfn|AP, 4 November 2011}}

In the midst of the [[Libyan Civil War (2014–present)|Second Libyan Civil War]] and the disappearance of governmental and international support for the site, people living in the area organized to voluntarily protect and maintain Leptis Magna.{{sfn|AFP, 23 December 2016}}{{sfn|Reuters, 28 November 2017}}