Cyrenaica or Kyrenaika, is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, was part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya Sicca. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as Barqa, after the city of Barca.
Roman ruins of Ptolemais, Cyrenaica
Emir Idris as-Senussi (left), and behind him (from left) Hussein Maziq, Muhammad Sakizli and Mustafa Ben Halim, formed the government of Cyrenaica in late 1940s
Littorio Palace in Benghazi was the seat of the Cyrenaican assembly
Cyrene, also sometimes anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa. It was part of the Pentapolis, an important group of five cities in the region, and gave the area its classical and early modern name Cyrenaica.
Sanctuary of Apollo at Cyrene
Arcesilaus II oversees the weighing of silphium for export, on a Laconian kylix, ca. 565-560 BC.
The Temple of Zeus, Cyrene
The Cyrene bronze head in the British Museum (300 BC).
