Benghazi

Greek settlers, probably from Cyrene or Barce, founded Euesperides on this shore around 525 BC, beside a lagoon that later silted up. The city was refounded a short distance away in the third century BC as Berenice, named for Berenice II, the wife of Ptolemy III, and became one of the five cities of the Pentapolis under the Ptolemies and then Rome; its remains lie beneath the modern city. By the Arab conquest of 642–643 the place had dwindled to a village among ruins, and its name comes from a local holy man, Ghazi, whose burial place gave the port the name Marsa ibn Ghazi on 16th-century maps.

Ottoman rule from the 16th century left Benghazi a modest trading town on the caravan route from the interior. Italy took it in 1911 and rebuilt it as a colonial city, laying out an arcaded commercial centre, building the cathedral and the port, and settling colonists on the plain behind. The city changed hands several times in the North African campaign of the Second World War and was heavily bombed. After independence in 1951 it served alongside Tripoli as a capital of the kingdom, and oil wealth expanded it from the 1960s.

Benghazi was where the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi began in February 2011, and the city became the seat of the opposition's National Transitional Council. Between 2014 and 2017 it was the scene of prolonged urban fighting between rival Libyan forces that destroyed much of the old centre and displaced large numbers of residents. Since then the eastern authorities have rebuilt roads, housing and parts of the centre, and the city remains their base. In September 2023 Storm Daniel burst two dams above Derna, about 300 km east, killing thousands; Benghazi became a centre for the relief effort.

Benghazi thinks of itself as the capital of Cyrenaica, and its identity is tied to the region's Bedouin tribes, to the Senussi religious order that shaped the east, and to the memory of resistance to Italian rule. Omar Mukhtar, hanged at Suluq in 1931, is the great local hero, and his name is on the city's main street. Tribal and family belonging counts for a great deal in everyday matters, from marriage to work to security.

The Arabic of the east is closer to that of western Egypt than to Tripoli's, and the city has a reputation within Libya for plain speech and for political directness — it was, after all, where the 2011 uprising began. Its Italian period left a café culture, a taste for coffee and pasta, and the arcaded streets in which both are still found. A Jewish and Greek commercial presence was part of the city until the mid-20th century.

Social life is family life. Weddings run over several days with drumming, ululation and separate gatherings for men and women; Ramadan evenings are spent visiting; and hospitality means tea poured in three rounds, the last often with peanuts or almonds. Football is followed intensely, and the city's two main clubs have long rivalries. Poetry recited at gatherings is still a respected art in the Bedouin tradition.

Benghazi has an estimated 859,000 people, on a 2023 figure, which makes it Libya's second city and by far the largest in the east. Work is in government administration, the port, the university and hospitals, construction, trade and services, with oil revenue underwriting public-sector salaries that support many households; the oil terminals themselves lie south along the Gulf of Sirte.

Rebuilding has been the dominant fact of the past decade. New roads, housing blocks, malls and offices stand beside streets still marked by the fighting of 2014 to 2017, and families displaced from the damaged centre have moved outward into the western and southern districts. Much of ordinary life — shopping, eating out, meeting friends — has shifted with them.

The day starts early, slows in the afternoon heat and revives after sunset, when the corniche and the commercial streets fill. Power cuts, water interruptions, cash shortages at the banks and the gap between official and parallel exchange rates are the recurring frustrations, along with a heavy security presence and the political division between east and west that complicates everything from banking to travel documents.

Eastern Libyan cooking is Bedouin at its base: lamb, rice, bread and dairy, generously spiced but not fiery. Bazin, a firm dome of barley dough served with a lamb, potato and egg stew, is the dish most associated with Libyan home cooking, and couscous steamed with lamb or chicken and vegetables belongs to festive and communal meals. Sharba, a lamb and vegetable soup with mint, tomato and fine pasta, opens the iftar table in Ramadan.

The Italian period left its mark on the city's food more than anywhere else in the east: pasta is everyday, and imbakbaka — pasta simmered in one pot with meat in a spiced tomato sauce — is a Libyan dish built on it. Fish from the Gulf of Sirte is grilled or stewed, and street food runs to shawarma, falafel and sfinz, a fried dough eaten with sugar or with egg. Asida, a lump of wheat dough served with date syrup and melted butter, is made for the Prophet's birthday and for Eid.

The Green Mountain behind the city supplies fruit, potatoes and cereals, and dates come from the oases of Jalu and Awjila to the south. Sweets are sugary and often semolina-based, such as maqrud filled with dates. Tea is boiled strong and sweet and poured in rounds; coffee is drunk Italian-style in the cafés; and alcohol is illegal and not sold.