Why take a trip to Cyrenaica?

A corner of Greece in Africa

Cyrenaica is a corner of Greece, perhaps for this reason the first settlers who arrived from Thera, the ancient Santorini, settled there, founding flourishing cities such as Cyrene, Apollonia, Tocra and Tolmeita.

Cyrene

“Happy, sweet garden of Aphrodite and divine city” were the words with which the poet Pindar described Cyrene, built on the Jebel Akhdar plateau (Green Mountains), in Cyrenaica. Coming from Tripolitania by land, Cyrenaica appears even greener, in contrast with the white sand dunes of the Gulf of Sirte. Climbing the Jebel you really see a corner of Greece that almost seems like a prelude to the Athens of Africa, the Greek colony that arose where, according to Herodon, the sky was pierced.

The immensity and the position itself make Cyrene arouse a particular emotion, so much so that when you are preparing to enter the archaeological park, you do so almost on tiptoe.

Silence reigns supreme and is broken only when the melodious voice of the muezzin calls the faithful of the new Shahat, the city built adjacent to the Greek ruins, to prayer, bringing the visitor back to reality.

Walking along the roads and paths you feel the weight of history which in the case of Cyrene covers almost 1500 years.

It is difficult to read the phases of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine city on today's terrain: elements of one have become part of the other or simply canceled by the new architectural vision of the subsequent phases.

Even today Cyrene amazes with the grandeur and extension of the site and it is not difficult to understand the wealth that the city must have achieved in its period of maximum splendor. The French traveler Pacho was astonished in 1823 in front of the immensity of its necropolis, and drew some of the tombs that were part of it, drawings that could be contemporary, where cows graze among the ruins and sarcophagi, giving the idea of a bucolic landscape that has not changed with the passing of the centuries.

Apollonia

Descending the hill and leaving the city of Cyrene behind us, we arrive at Apollonia: the columns of the three basilicas soar into the sky which blends in with the intense blue of the sea. you walk along the beach and one after the other the ancient monuments of the city are revealed until you reach the theatre, spectacular in its position facing the sea. Apollonia took its name from the patron deity (Apollo) of the city of which it was the outlet to the sea. Already from the end of the 7th century. BC the center must have been active as a port of Cyrene. It had great importance in the late Empire as, thanks to its position on the sea, it was less exposed than inland centers (such as Cyrene) to attacks by the indigenous populations, the Libyans.

After Diocletian it was even chosen as the seat of the governor of the new province of Libya superior. Its name had changed to Sozousa (= the Savior), probably derived from the name of a divinity venerated here, from which the modern name of Susa derives. And most of the monuments date back to the late imperial age and the Byzantine age. visible today in Apollonia while very little has so far been brought to light of the Greek city. The city was hit by violent earthquakes in around 365 and 400 AD, as we know from the letters of Bishop Synesius, and many Roman buildings were destroyed, thus putting disposition of the architects of the 5th century. d. C. the materials (columns, capitals, stone blocks, etc.) to be reused for new buildings (in particular religious buildings, basilicas). The port and the entire surrounding area are now submerged by the sea, as the current coastline is far behind the ancient one. This entire submerged area of the ancient city is at the center of underwater research by French archaeologists, which has also led to the identification of a sunken ship in the port.