“What we found is shocking,” says Faisal Krekshi, 55, the new dean of the university which has now been renamed Tripoli University. “This was Gaddafi’s place. Only he and his people had access to it.”

Behind a set of locked doors there’s a room with a cozy double bed, flowery carpets and small lamps that casts off a warm orange glow. In an adjoining bathroom there’s a jacuzzi with water jets. Some faculty members say the dictator brought his mistresses to the room, others ask whether he raped female students there. It gets weirder. A couple of doors down there’s a full gynecological examination room. “There’s a gyny bed- what the hell is it doing in here?” asks Krekshi, an Ob/Gyn doctor who has worked at the university for 14 years but had no knowledge of the facility. “I think it’s here for illegal abortions.”