By Tom Westcott.
Tripoli, 16 May 2013:
A team from the Department of Antiquities today visited the ancient Roman site of Sabratha to . . .[restrict]see if any damage was sustained during last week’s earthquake.
“This is a preliminary visual inspection,” head of the UNESCO office in Libya, Ludivico Folin Calabi, told the Libya Herald today. “The local inspector has said there is no apparent damage, but the Department of Antiquities is sending a team to make further checks.”
He added that UNESCO would be making a more in-depth visit in early June, to undertake structural analysis, which is needed to establish the extent of any damage that may not be seen by the naked eye.
“We need to inspect the whole city but especially the theatre,” Folin Calabi said.
The city, and particularly the theatre, was badly damaged by an earthquake in 365.
Sabratha has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. [/restrict]
