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The announcement came like a shot across the bow as our ship approached the shores of Tripoli: All the bars on board were to be closed, and all liquor supplies sealed by order of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. For the three days that Silversea Cruises' ship Silver Cloud was visiting Libya, passengers would have to abide by Libyan law, which has zero tolerance for alcohol.

This came as a shock on a ship where drinks are complimentary. But aside from this inconvenience, we knew what we were getting into when we signed up for the Silver Cloud's visit in April. It was the first North American-based cruise ship to visit Libya since 1986, when U.S. president Ronald Reagan called Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi the “mad dog of Tripoli” and ordered air strikes in response to the country's alleged support of terrorists. The U.S. and Canada both supported United Nations-imposed sanctions, which were lifted in 2003.

With travel bans for Americans also lifted and conciliatory messages coming from Gadhafi, the country is suddenly back on the travel map. Silversea Cruises is planning at least a dozen more visits by its 300-passenger ships, and other mainstream cruise lines are scheduling visits this fall and next year.

But what's the attraction? It's only a desert, right? From the time we arrived, there were surprises. The first was the verdant shoreline. After a rare spring rainstorm, wild flowers in yellows, bright reds and lavenders were springing up on green hillsides.

Arriving in Tripoli, which has a population of more than one million but doesn't look busy at all, there was no traffic noise. In fact, there were no sounds at all, save for the skirls of — was that a bagpipe? Well, sort of: We were being greeted with a traditional desert welcoming serenade played on a bagpipe-like instrument known as a mizwid.

Expecting hesitation, if not some suspicion, from the Libyans, there was another surprise: Smiles everywhere, making us feel perfectly secure and welcome. Tourists are such curiosities that locals actually snapped photos of us. Despite the authorities' strict rules regarding alcohol, dress codes here were relaxed. Men wore Western-style sports wear, women long robes and scarves but not veils.

We boarded modern buses for a tour of Tripoli, an austere and socialist-modern city that is not what you would call a tourist attraction. Its shops were filled only with the basics, and cafés were frequented only by men drinking tea and Mecca-Cola. But Tripoli wasn't our main objective. We were heading 130 kilometres east of the capital to Leptis Magna, the ancient hub of this North African region that was then known as Tripolitana.

If you've never heard of Leptis Magna, you're forgiven. But you'll never forgive yourself if you don't see it. “Breathtaking” doesn't do justice to my first impression as I scanned a valley filled with columned buildings, amphitheatres and ancient markets. Rome's glory is still remarkably visible in this vast city, which reached its heyday under the emperor Septimus Severus, who was born here in 146 AD and is feted by a triumphal arch covered with carved cherubs and angels.

Leptis Magna is much better preserved than any of the ancient sites I have visited in Italy or Greece. Floors are covered with intricate mosaics; walls and delicate archways are intact and boldly inscribed with renderings to the gods, as well as the caesars.The marble edifice of the Baths of Hadrian is so intact that there has even been a proposal submitted to UNESCO — which has declared all of Leptis Magna a World Heritage Site — to restore it to a functional spa.

It took an earthquake or two — as well as sackings by the Vandals and Berbers 1,500 years ago — to force the citizens to leave. Once this happened, the Saharan sands blew in and buried the city. Only the tops of a few walls stuck out from the dunes when Libya became an Italian colony in the 1920s, and Italian archeologists began excavations. Modern archeologists say only a small fraction of what is here has been uncovered.

Modern, air-conditioned tour buses followed the ship as it moved between Tripoli and a second port, Dernah, to the east of the capital. Here, passengers had two choices: Spend a day at another ancient site, the Greek city of Cyrene, or go farther east along the coast to Tobruk, the site of major battles during the Second World War. Near its war memorial are vast graveyards of British, Australian and German soldiers.

I chose the former, which was the most important of the cities in the Greek empire's African region of Cyrenaica before the first century BC. Temples dedicated to the gods Apollo, Demeter and Zeus are in spectacular condition, and unlike the structures on the Acropolis in Athens, visitors can ramble at will around their columns.

Returning to our ship, we realized we had seen the shores of Tripoli at a golden moment — before an inevitable rush of tourists that is sure to bring restrictions on access to these monuments and their fragile and priceless artifacts.