Benghazi & Cyrenaica

Greek settlers from the island of Thera founded Cyrene around 631 BC, and it grew rich on grain, horses and silphium, a plant used as a medicine and seasoning that was harvested to extinction in antiquity. With its port Apollonia and the cities of Euesperides (later Berenice, now Benghazi), Taucheira and Ptolemais, it formed the Pentapolis. Cyrenaica passed to the Ptolemies of Egypt and then, in 96 BC, to Rome; a Jewish revolt in 115–117 and later earthquakes left Cyrene in ruins, and Byzantine churches filled the coastal towns before the Arab conquest of 642.

In the 19th century the Senussi, a Sufi order founded by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Senussi, spread from lodges on the Green Mountain into the desert, and moved its centre deep south to Kufra in 1894. When Italy invaded in 1911 the Senussi led the resistance. The guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar fought for two decades until he was captured and hanged at Suluq in 1931, after Italy had driven much of the population into concentration camps.

In the Second World War, Tobruk withstood a long Axis siege in 1941 before falling in 1942. The Senussi head became King Idris of independent Libya, and after his overthrow in 1969 Cyrenaica saw occasional opposition to Gaddafi. The 2011 uprising began in Benghazi in February, and the city became the rebels' capital. Years of fighting followed there and in Derna, and since 2014 the region has been the base of an eastern government and of forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar, rival to the authorities in Tripoli. In September 2023, Storm Daniel burst two dams above Derna, killing thousands.

Cyrenaica has a strong regional identity, tied to its Bedouin tribes, the Senussi order and the memory of resistance to Italy. Its Arabic dialect is close to that of western Egypt, and the eastern tribes have long had links across the border. Tribal belonging shapes politics, marriage and local security more strongly than in the west.

Omar Mukhtar is the region's great hero, remembered on banknotes, in a 1981 film, Lion of the Desert, and in countless street names. Religious life has Sufi roots, and the Senussi lodges once served as centres of trade as well as prayer. In the southern oases, the people of Awjila speak a Berber language, and Kufra is home to Tebu as well as Arab communities.

Hospitality follows Bedouin custom: guests are served tea in rounds and often a meal of lamb and rice, and poetry recited at gatherings remains a respected art. Weddings are held over several days, and Ramadan evenings are spent between family houses.

Benghazi, Libya's second city with about 860,000 people, has been rebuilt after the battles of 2014–2017, with new roads, towers and malls now beside damaged streets. Bayda, Marj, Derna and Tobruk are the other main towns, and the southern oases hold small, scattered communities.

The economy rests on oil: the terminals of the Gulf of Sirte around Brega and the fields in the desert behind them are central to the country's income, and blockades of the terminals have figured in the dispute between east and west. The Great Man-Made River pipes groundwater from the desert south to the coastal cities. The Green Mountain grows grains, fruit and vegetables, and Kufra has irrigated farms.

Daily life is orderly on the surface, with a strong security presence, but the aftermath of Derna's flood, slow reconstruction and political divisions weigh on people.

Eastern cooking is Bedouin at heart, built on lamb, rice, bread and dairy. Bazin, a firm dough of barley flour served with a lamb stew, is one of the best-known Libyan dishes. Couscous, steamed and served with lamb or chicken and vegetables, belongs to festive and communal meals, and in Ramadan the iftar table usually includes sharba, a lamb and vegetable soup.

The Green Mountain, the wettest part of the country, grows fruit, potatoes and cereals. Benghazi's cafés and bakeries show the Italian period, with coffee, pastries and pasta dishes such as imbakbaka, and fish is eaten along the coast. Dates come from the oases of Jalu and Awjila.

Tea is poured in rounds, strong and sweet, the last round often with peanuts or almonds. Asida, a lump of wheat dough served with date syrup and melted butter, is made for the Prophet's birthday and for Eid.

Cyrene, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sits on the edge of the Green Mountain above the coastal plain: the sanctuary of Apollo by its sacred spring, a vast temple of Zeus, the agora, a theatre, and a great necropolis cut into the hillsides. Apollonia, below it at Susa, has Byzantine churches, a theatre and the remains of a harbour partly under the sea. Ptolemais at Tolmeita and Qasr Libya, with its Byzantine mosaics, lie to the west.

The Green Mountain itself is an upland of forest and juniper scrub, cut by gorges such as the Wadi al-Kuf, crossed by a high bridge. Benghazi has its Italian-era cathedral, now closed, and in the east Tobruk has its harbour and Commonwealth war cemeteries. Derna lies along its wadi, scene of the 2023 flood.

Far south, the oases of Awjila, with its old Atiq mosque, and Jalu lie on the old caravan route, and Kufra is a group of oases amid circles of irrigated fields, with the Sahara's sand seas all round.