If you happen to be near Windsor in England, you should take the opportunity to visit Virginia Water, a large man-made lake in Windsor Great Park which has long been a royal hunting ground and spacious backyard for the monarchs staying at Windsor Castle.
Not far from the Visitor Centre stands a classical ruin which, on Google Maps, is marked as Leptis Magna Ruins. Still, how did the magnificent ruins that once stood in Libya, end up in Surrey?
In 1816, an English Consul in Tripoli, one Colonel Hanmer Warrington, visited the ruined Roman city of Leptis Magna and thought some of the precious relics would make a great addition to the British Museum.
He saw no problem with powerful Britain throwing its imperial weight around and regarding itself as the rightful heir to the relics left behind by the Romans. He then persuaded the local Ottoman governor at the time to let him take some of the structures back to Britain.
Today, that would probably be seen as a war crime under the Hague Convention but back in those days, it was common practice.
The Elgin Marbles had been removed from the Parthenon and shipped to Britain just a couple of years earlier and the French had removed 600 columns from Leptis Magna in the 17th century and incorporated them into Versailles, Rouen Cathedral and elsewhere.
Some 37 marble and granite columns, together with pedestals, cornices and various other ancient stone slabs arrived in London in 1818 and were deposited in the courtyard of the British Museum. The museum in turn, did not know what to do with them since they were undergoing rebuilding at the time.
After eight years, King George IV decided to have them as garden adornments at Virginia Water. The King’s architect Jeffrey Wyatville, created a folly in the form of a ruined Roman temple using the Leptis Magna stones.
He called his creation the Temple of Augustus, perhaps in honour of King George whose middle name was Augustus.
Fast-forward to 2008, the ruins were in poor condition due to a combination of the English climate, root damage and vandalism. However, they were restored by the Crown Estate and reopened to the public in 2009.
As for the original Leptis Magna in Libya, at its height around 1,800 years ago, it had been the third-most important city in Africa, after Carthage and Alexandria.
This was during the reign of Emperor Septimus Severus who was born in the city. The city fell into decline after his reign and, over the centuries, was damaged by a tidal wave, sand encroachment and various invasions. Locals also used the site as a source of building materials.
Despite all of this, and even with the plundering of Warrington and Louis XIV, the ruins remain among the best-preserved Roman sites in the Mediterranean and they are a world class tourist attraction, or at least would be, if Libya were not wracked by war.
Hopefully Leptis Magna will emerge unscathed from this latest episode in its turbulent history. But, if it needs any replacement columns, everyone should know where to look for spares now.
This article first appeared on Thrifty Traveller.