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, and in the Kingdom of Libya until 1963. In this wider sense, which still sees some use today, Cyrenaica comprises the entire eastern part of Libya, including the Kufra District. It is adjacent to Tripolitania in the northwest and Fezzan in the southwest. What used to be Cyrenaica until 1963 is now divided up into several shabiyat (see administrative divisions in Libya).

Cyrenaica is the center of the Libyan anti-Gaddafi forces of the 2011 Libyan civil war with the National Transitional Council based in the city of Benghazi.[1]