Musso, L. (2026). "Villa of Wadi Iala." Gardens of the Roman Empire, accessed October 2, 2026. https://roman-gardens.github.io/id/e4745ac5de/

Villa of Wadi Iala

Author: Luisa Musso
Contributor: Amelia Lamis
Published: 2026-10-01
Last modified: 2026-10-02

Dates

second century CE to early third century CE

Excavation Dates

1970s to 1980s

Garden Description

The villa was excavated and restored in the 1970s and 1980s by the Libyan Department of Antiquities, under the then superintendent for Leptis Magna, Omar al-Mahjub. The complex is not conserved in its entirety (Fig. 1). Marine erosion has removed the northern part of the peristyle, that is, the ends of the two side-wings, and the entire north wing, which would have closed the peristyle on the shoe side. The peristyle [0], fronting dramatically onto the sea, served as the focal point of the villa's reception area (Fig. 2). The portico, with plastered sandstone columns, was articulated around a central garden. At the rear, some of the building's more important rooms opened onto two grand viridaria to the south of the complex. The first (b) was bounded to the south by a curved wall (Fig. 4) and to the north by a portico, onto which faced the tablinum [2] and another of the villa's reception rooms [3]. The identification of this open area as a garden was confirmed by the discovery during the excavation of a least five terracotta flowerpots, each with holes in the base to enable the roots to grow out (Fig. 3).

The second garden (c) was considerably larger, and rectangular in form (Fig. 1 and 4). A trellis must have bounded the north side, flanking the rear of the sea-peristyle's southern wing. From west to east, this wing consisted of: two diaetae (10-11); a large triclinium, sumptuously decorated with columns and marble floor and wall revetment (12); a corridor of communication between the peristyle and the rear part of the villa (13); and the master-bedroom (14).

For the originality of its plan, however, the most interesting garden sector is that to the east of the villa [d] (Fig. 5). The arrangement of this vast open area as a garden dates in all probability to the end of the second century CE - that is, after the construction and decoration of the peristyle sector of the villa and its contemporary circular bath-block. Due to marine erosion, much of the northern portion and the eastern boundary of the garden has not survived. The garden's original layout should be seen in relation to the construction of the oecus [21], backing onto the bath rotunda (cf. Fig. 1), and with the reorganization of this sector of the complex as a residential area.

Of the original garden layout four trenches survive, 30 em deep and 1.5 meters - 3 meters wide, running parallel to the shoreline. They are divided lengthwise by long, low walls. At east, the layout is only partially preserved. The tops of the trench walls are decorated with polychrome mosaics of acanthus scrolls enclosing fruit and animals (Fig. 6). Fragments of a painted frieze with Nilotic scenes hae been detached from the sides and southernmost of the two longer trenches (Fig. 1).

During the latest phase, dating most probably to the Severan or late Severan period, the southernmost trench at least must have been destroyed for the construction of the portico with adjacent scales-mosaic pavement, which bounded the garden's southern side and which abutted one of the trench walls. The construction of the portico represents the last building phase of the villa and had the function of screening off the service-quarters behind it (cf. Fig. 5).

Continued excavation is impossible because of the re-arrangement of the entire area as a new garden; we can therefore only advance hypotheses regarding the original purpose of these trenches (Fig. 8). It is conceivable that they functioned as an alternate sequence of paths (the trench with painted Nilotic decoration, for example) and flower-beds. The ancient predilection for symmetrical planning most likely influenced the layout of our trenches. One could suggest a reconstruction of nine trenches: three central ones, of greater dimensions and extending further to the west (two of this kind are conserved in fragmentary state); and six minor ones, symmetrically arranged with three on each side of the central group (two remain to the south; the group to the north has vanished completely, but can be reconstructed by virtue of their symmetry) (Fig.9). In the absence of clear excavation data, the reconstruction of one or more of the trenches as water-channels (euripi) remains highly speculative (as in Fig.10).

The whole arrangement, even in terms of its apparent novelty, can be traced back to prototypes favored by imperial patronage: one should not rule out the possibility that, taking into account the necessary adaptations, our plan belonged to a typology very much in fashion at that time as, for instance, the so-called Stadium at Hadrian's villa near Tivoli, in which in the garden in front of the Northern Hall, the pool (or euripus) is symmetrically flanked by flower-beds.

Bibliography

  • Omar Al Mahjub, "I mosaici della villa romana di Silin." In III Colloquio Internazionale sul Mosaico Antico (Ravenna, 1980), edited by R. Farioli Campanati, vol. 1, 299–306. Ravenna, 1983. (worldcat)
  • Omar Al Mahjub, 1978-1979 (1987). "I mosaici della villa romana di Silin", Libya Antiqua, 15-16 (1987), p. 69-74. (worldcat)
  • Adolf Hoffmann, Das Gartenstadion in der Villa Hadriana. Mainz am Rhein, 1980. (worldcat)
  • Luisa Musso, "Leptis Magna", Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, II Supplemento, 1971-1994, vol. III, 333-347, Roma, 1995. (worldcat)
  • Luisa Musso, "Leptis Magna e i1 suo territorio: suburbio, ville marittime, necropoli, mausolei", in La ricerca archeologica, antropologica, etnologica, 203-208, Roma, 1997, Ministero degli Affari Esteri. Direzione Generali delle Relazioni Culturali. Missioni Archeologiche Italiane. (worldcat)
  • Luisa Musso, "La villa di Silin. Architettura, pittura e mosaici di una residenza marittima di eta romana in Tripolitania, forthcoming (Suppl. to Libya Antiqua). Tripoli - Roma.
  • Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ville marittime residenziali nel Nord Africa", Colloqui del Sodalizio s. 2a, 2: 21-32, 1968-1970. (worldcat)
  • Eugenia Salza Prina Ricott, "Le ville marittime di Silin (Leptis Magna)", Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia. Rendiconti 43: 135-163, 1970-1971. (worldcat)
  • Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, "1 porti della zona di Leptis Magna", Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana diArcheologia. Rendiconti 45: 75-103, 1972-1973. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places