(cyrene):

When the Romans took over the cyrenaican plateau in the first century B.C., they called the area the Pentapolis “the five citie” as it included five major urban centers; Cyerne, Appolonia, Barea, Ptolemais, Bernice, Tauchira.

In ancient times Cyrene was considered one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean area, second only to Athens, it is the largest archaeological settlement of the Pentapolis cities of the green mountain area, in eastern LIBYA, the other cities being :Apollonia (Sousa). Taucheira (Tokra).Ptolemais (Tolmaytha) and Berenice and Posbrids(Benghazi).the city of Shah’hat lies on the ruins of Cyrene, 10 km east of Al- BAYDA. Cyrene was founded in 631 B.C., by some Greek adventurers  coming from the island of Thera, known today as Santhorini . It was occupied in later times but the Byzantines . The Arabs Muslim came to the region in 642-643 Ad., and the new faith (Islam) has dominated the area ever since

The cultural influences and historical events that have shaped Cyrene`s history can still be traced in the ruins of the temples of Zeus and Apollo, the theatre, the vast area of the Agora, the Acropolis, the wall built to its north during the 1st century B.c.( and then rebuilt by the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D), and in some churches built during Byzantine control of the city. The city of Cyrene reached its peak in the 4th century B.C. During the Emperor Augusts rule, it was both, center and guiding force of the whole region . In the 2nd century AD, a series of violent rebellions  started the city on its way to a slow and inexorable decline. A severe earth quake hit Cyrene in the 3rd century AD, reducing it to ruins.