News from the Valley of the Kings

This is somewhat off topic but important enough to pass on as it seems presently limited to Arabic sources.  I regret that I am insufficiently familiar with Libyan momuments to verify the details but it purports to show the momuments at Nalut, and I think it does.  Similarly, I am not able to assess the degree of damage done or that it was pro-Gadaffi forces as claimed; although, the impression on casual inspection is of relatively extensive damage.  However, having plead ignorance, for those wishing to know more the monuments concerned are an old Berber castle.

As we saw in Egypt, archaeologists are often the last foreigners to leave a troubled country and an Italian team only left Libya on Saturday:

The team of seven men and four women were from the Italian–Libyan Archaeological Mission in the Acacus and Messak, an expedition to research prehistoric archaeology and rock-art. They took temporary refuge in an oilfield camp in the open desert. Stress levels were high, explains Savino di Lernia, head of the team: "We were hundreds of kilometres from an airport, with the entire country to be crossed to reach it," he says. In a Twin Otter light aircraft, they had to make their way at short notice to Sebha airport in central Libya to rendezvous with the evacuation plane.

As well as the report of this Italian-Libyan mission, the article addresses more general concerns to the antiquities of Libya.  For anybody who doesn't know the location of the main sites, there is a map.  Click on it to get a much bigger version with legible labels.  In addition, there two major museums in Tripoli and dessert rock art along the Egyptian border.  Sites near the capital are most at risk; remote dessert sites are thought to be relatively safe.