Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica ( /saɪrɨˈneɪ.ɨkə/ SY-rə-NAY-ə-kə; Ancient Greek: Κυρηναϊκή, after the city of Cyrene; Arabic: برقة‎ Barqah; Berber: Berqa) is the eastern coastal region of Libya. Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as Barqa, after the city of Barca.

Cyrenaica was the name of an administrative division of Italian Libya from 1927 through 1943, then under British military and civil administration from 1943 through 1951, and finally in the Kingdom of Libya from 1951 through 1963. In a wider sense, which is still used, Cyrenaica is composed of all of the eastern part of Libya, including the Kufra District. Cyrenaica is adjacent to Tripolitania in the northwest and Fezzan in the southwest. The region that used to be Cyrenaica officially through 1963 is now divided up into several shabiyat, the administrative divisions of Libya).

Cyrenaica was the birthplace of the Libyan civil war, and was largely under the control of the National Transitional Council for most of the war; their headquarters were in Benghazi.