Gerisa (Libya) is the classical name of the actual city of Ghirza in Libya, during the Roman Empire.[1]
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Gerisa was a small Roman city which developed and flourished mainly during the second century after Christ, in a semi desert area and in hard climatic conditions, only through the sheer will of the inhabitants.
Gerisa settlement was made of nearly one hundred buildings and is located in the Werfella area southeast of Leptis Magna, one hour drive from the town of Beni Walid. It is bounded by Wadi Ghirza in the north before the latter meets Wadi Zamzam. The origin of the name Ghirza is unknown, but it is probable that its original name was "Gerisa", which is one of the towns in the Sirte area, listed by the historian Ptolemy (no other historical reference to the town has been found).
The ruins of Ghirza (the actual arab name) are considered archaeologically important as they are built to a local pattern, yet influenced by architectural styles prevailing at the end of the Roman era. The tombs themselves belong to local Libyan personalities, since the names of "Fadil", "Numera" and "Nasif" were found engraved on the main tomb in the northern cemetery.
Also included in the ruins are a group of houses located on the left side of the wadi, not far from the confluence with Wadi Zamzam. Yet another part of the ruins contains a group of cemeteries built in the form of temples and obelisks. The first of these is the largest and architecturally most important. It is located on the northern road and is in the shape of a Mausoleum tomb with a square base along the east-west axis. All the tombs are constructed out of limestone blocks quarried in the same area.
The main museum in Tripoli (Al-Matthaf Al-Jamahiri) houses a reconstruction of one of the tombs.
Gerisa actually is situated in a desert area, but in Roman times the area was relatively fertile. Romans developed in Tripolitania their system of farms called "Centenaria", with some small urban areas inside: Ghirza was one of these small frontier cities.[2]
Former Roman soldiers were settled in this area in the first century, and the arid land was developed.[3] Dams and cisterns were built in the Wadi Ghirza (then not dry like today) to regulate the flash floods. These structures are still visible: there it is among the ruins of actual Ghirza a temple, which may have been dedicated to the berber semi-god "Gurzil", and the name of the town itself may even be related to his name.[4] The farmers produced cereals, figs, vines, olives, pulses, almonds, dates, and perhaps melons. Gerisa city consisted of some forty buildings, including six fortified farms (centenaria). Two of them were really largeand were abandoned only in the Middle Ages.
As a consequence the Roman city of Gerisa, situated away from the coast and south of Leptis Magna, developed quickly in a rich agricultural area.[5] Ghirza became a "boom town" after 200 AD, when Septimius Severus had better organized the Limes Tripolitanus of Roman Libya. But with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century the area was partially abandoned by the Romanized libyans, who retreated to coastal places like Theodorias.
Gerisa survived until the XII century, when the desert destroyed all the agriculture of the area after some local wars.Now there it is a small settlement called Ghirza, located near the ruins of Roman Gerisa.
