Visitors often remark that its arches and gates, forums, market place, temples, baths, theatre, circus and amphitheatre amaze not only because they are some of finest surviving examples of Roman architecture in the Mediterranean but also because of their eerie completeness. It feels as if its inhabitants had left town that morning rather than nearly 1,500 years ago. It was reported that Gaddafi used the ruins of Leptis Magna to store rockets because he had calculated that its status as a Unesco World Heritage Site meant that Nato planes would not attack it.Picture: Jason Hawkes / @jasonhawkesphot / jasonhawkes.com

Credit : Jason Hawkes / @jasonhawkesphot / jasonhawkes.com