Haua Fteah Cave

Haua Fteah is a cave mouth some eighty metres wide in the limestone of the Jebel Akhdar near the coast, and excavation there by Charles McBurney from 1951 cut a deep trench that produced a sequence of human occupation running back well over a hundred thousand years, one of the longest recorded anywhere in North Africa. Later work has continued and refined it. The cave is enormous and largely empty, with the trench still visible.

What you actually see

• The cave mouth - an opening some eighty metres wide in the limestone.
• The excavation trench - the deep cut made from 1951 onwards, still visible.
• The occupation sequence - human use running back well over a hundred thousand years.
• The Jebel setting - the upland limestone the cave is cut into.

When to go

March to May and October to November are the comfortable months. The cave is cool year round. Winter rain makes the track difficult.

Honest expectations

There is nothing to see but the cave and the trench; the finds are elsewhere. No interpretation exists at the site. Travel in Libya requires arrangements through a licensed operator.

Nearby

Ras al-Hilal is east, and Apollonia is west.