"The Three Graces", in the museum at Cyrene
 

Built into the folds of the hills, sits the graceful ancient city of Cyrene. The area is peaceful and inspiring with its pine trees and views of the Mediterranean. It was the first Greek overseas colony and is a place of great beauty. It vast. Tens of thousands of people lived here. Founded in 631BC Cyrene is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There are many impressive remains. Outstanding amongst these is the imposing 5th century BC Temple of Zeus, with its huge golden columns. It is larger than the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Zeus in Olympia.

The Sanctuary of Apollo has a rich collection of public buildings. Among them is the 6th century BC Temple of Apollo with an enormous altar covered in marble slabs.

The Northern Necropolis is an extensive eerie area with some 2000 tombs cut into the rock face. There is the impressive Roman house of Jason Magnus and the Greek Temple of Agora with some fine mosaic floors.

Cyrene was one of the greatest intellectual and artistic centres of the Greek world. It is easy to understand when you visit this great city why, in the 4th century BC, Cyrene was considered the unrivalled city of the Greek world.

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Apollo

Gymnasium, Cyrene

Apollonia was the port for Cyrene and is an enchanting site. Along a kilometre of coastline rise a series of stately ruins. Traces of superb mosaic floor lie intact where they were laid over 2000 years ago, but most of the remains are Byzantine or Roman. Looking out over the sea is a perfectly located Roman theatre in excellent condition. Four Byzantine churches lie within the Greek city walls.
 

Theatre

Underground cistern, Ptolemais

Teuchira is, so far, the least excavated of these Greek cities. Fine Greek pottery in the museum here shows us that it was a rich city in its time.

The ruins of Ptolemais, covered by sand for centuries, have survived well. The impressive Greek Palace of columns is the most decorated building in the city.

Amazing, unexpected structures lie beneath the gymnasium. These vast underground cisterns, with high arched ceilings, were originally built by the Greeks and extended by the Romans to collect drinking water from springs. It is an impressive piece of engineering for any century. There are the remains of several Roman villas once occupied by the wealthy. Most of their original superb, mosaic floors, Greek and Roman statues and other artefacts have been removed to the excellent on site museum, which is a delight to visit. There are also examples of inspiring solid Byzantine architecture in this city such as the Teuchira Gate and Western Basilica.

Qasr Libya

The village of Qasr Libya near Ptolemais houses a small, but exceptional museum of the finest Byzantine mosaics in North Africa. These very small ceramic pieces were originally laid in about 500AD in the Eastern Church nearby. One of the 50 mosaic panels is a rare representation of the Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Benghazi

Libya’s 2nd city, Benghazi was destroyed in World War II and it has a well-tended cemetery for allied soldiers. It is a very modern city and well worth exploring. The lively, colourful Souk Al-Jreed sells everything imaginable and is amazing to visit and soak in the atmosphere. There remains an old 16th century Turkish fort. Benghazi was built on the site of the fifth Greek city of Eusperides and excavations of this old city are in their infancy.

Other sites in Cyrenaica

Wadi al Kuf

Omar al Mukhtar (Wadi al Kuf)

There are a number of early Christian churches built in idyllic places throughout Cyrenaica. The church at Ras al-Hillal lies in an area of dramatic scenery and is one of the most beautiful locations on this wild coast. Its famous mosaics are in the Apollonia museum. On a rocky crag on the edge of the Mediterranean stands the Western church at l’Atrun. The walls of the church are intact and its sugar-white marble pillars are adorned with neatly carved Byzantine crosses. Both would be inspiring places to worship.

Slonta village has one of the few pre-Greek remains found preserved in Libya. It is a small temple, dedicated to unknown gods. Its stonework is lavishly decorated with carvings. Some are of bulging-eyed people and pigs. It is a strange sight and no one has yet unravelled its history.

The countryside on the outskirts of Derna is an area of natural beauty, where a surprising waterfall cascades from a cliff into the Wadi. In the 7th century, Christians fleeing persecution lived in the seaside cliffs. A covered souk, interesting old quarters and the tomb of Rwayfia ibn Thabet, a companion of Mohamed, are in Derna town.
 

Wadi al Kuf and Omar al Mukhtar
This region of Cyrenaica is noteworthy not only for its spectacular scenery, but for its great significance in Libya’s modern history. It was here, from 1911 to 1931, that the guerrilla-style Libyan resistance fighters, often living in the caves of the Green Mountains or Jebel Al Akhdar, waged their long and determined battle against the Italian occupation.

Despite the overwhelming military superiority facing them, the Libyans refused to surrender. In response, the Italian army fought back with increasing brutality, imprisoning 100,000 Libyans in concentration camps, killing their livestock, and building a 300 km barbed wire fence to block them from the outside world. Huge numbers of people – by some estimates as many as a quarter of the entire Libyan population – died directly or indirectly as a result of this campaign.

Over the final years of this struggle, the resistance was led by the elderly Omar Al Mukhtar, who organized determined strikes against the occupiers, including many in the Wadi al Kuf area of Cyrenaica. He was finally captured in 1931, when he was about 70 years of age. He was executed by hanging, in front of 20,000 supporters in a concentration camp located, ironically, in his birthplace of Suluq (near Slonta), and where he is now buried. His death effectively marked the end of the Libyan resistance.

Today, he is revered as one of Libya’s greatest national heroes, and Wadi al Kuf is much visited with great pride and respect. A film has been made of his life entitled The Lion of the Desert, starring Anthony Quinn; it was partly filmed in this Wadi.

Tobruk & Eastern Cyrenaica

Tobruk is world famous for being the scene of some of World War II’s most important battles. The cemeteries, of varying design are impeccably maintained and have an air of quiet dignity and peace.

Remote Al-Jaghbub lies at the start of the Great Sand Sea with its high dunes. Once it was an important rest place for pilgrims and traders. On the outskirts of the town in a valley, where the desert replaced a sea floor, are fossilised sea stars and two salt lakes with fossilised palm trees and 3000-year-old rock carvings of cattle.

Al-Jaghbub is the start of one of the most difficult and least frequented desert journeys in Libya. You must cross the challenging Great Sand Sea to Al Kufra oasis, then drive onward to the fascinating rock-art close to the Sudanese border.