17 Facts About Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between longitudes E16 and E25, including the Kufra District.

The coastal region, known as Pentapolis in antiquity, was part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya Sicca.

The 2011 Libyan Civil War started in Cyrenaica, which came largely under the control of the National Transitional Council for most of the war.

Geologically, Cyrenaica rests on a mass of Miocene limestone that tilts up steeply from the Mediterranean Sea and falls inland with a gradual descent to sea level again.

The plant communities of this portion of Cyrenaica include forest, woodland, maquis, garrigue, steppe and oak savanna.

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South of the coastal highlands of Cyrenaica is a large east–west running depression, extending eastward from the Gulf of Sidra into Egypt.

Cyrenaica was colonized by the Greeks beginning in the seventh century BC when it was known as Kyrenaika.

Cyrenaica's descendants, known as the Battiad dynasty, persisted in spite of severe conflict with Greeks in neighboring cities.

Region produced barley, wheat, olive oil, wine, figs, apples, wool, sheep, cattle and silphium, a herb that grew only in Cyrenaica and was regarded as a medicinal cure and aphrodisiac.

Since the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, Cyrenaica had been recognized as an ecclesiastical province of the See of Alexandria, in accordance with the ruling of the Nicaean Fathers.

Cyrenaica was conquered by Muslim Arabs under command of Amr ibn al-As during the tenure of the second caliph, Omar, in c, and became known as Barqah after its provincial capital, the ancient city of Barce.

The Ottoman Empire later claimed suzerainty of Cyrenaica based on the Mamluk claim of suzerainty through alliance with the tribes.

On 17 May 1919, Cyrenaica was established as an Italian colony, and, on 25 October 1920, the Italian government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idriss as the leader of the Senussi, who was granted the princely rank of Emir until 1929.

Since 1 September 1969, when the Senussi dynasty was overthrown by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Cyrenaica occasionally experienced nationalist activity against Gaddafi's military dictatorship, including a military rebellion at Tobruk in 1980.

The plan, known as The Cyrene Declaration, aimed to revive Cyrenaica's agriculture, create a national park and develop the region as a cultural and eco-tourism destination.

Much of the Libyan civil war, Cyrenaica was largely under the control of the National Transitional Council while Tripolitania and Fezzan remained under Gaddafi's government control.

Some proposed a "two-state solution" to the conflict, with Cyrenaica becoming an independent state, but this concept was strongly rejected by both sides, and the three regions were united again in October 2011, as rebel forces took Tripolitania and Fezzan and the government collapsed.