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After
one hour from BENGHAZI through a beautiful road surrounded by mountains and
hills you reach Ptolemais. There you can read its history through the numerous
remains of the past, and enjoy the fascinating scenery of the region with
mountains to your south and the Mediterranean sea to your north. The
city of Tulmaytha was founded in the 3rd century B.C, its fleet in
the Mediterranean competed with that of Cartage. In mid 3rd century
B.C, Ptolemais III gave the city his name by the year 96 B.C, Potelmais became
under Roman domination. In
the Roman times, Potlemais flourished and became the capital of
Cyrenaica,Palaces and numerous other huge building were erected in the area.
Water was collected in huge cisterns under the Agora. Some remains of those
cisterns still in existence on the site. These cisterns were the biggest in
North Africa. The
importance of Ptolemais exceeded that of Barce (almarj), which became a small
village if compared to Ptolemais. When the province of Pentapolis was
established in 297A.D, Ptolemais took the place of Cyrene and became the
capital. In later times triumph Arch for emperor Costantino was constructed as
well as several churches in the 6th century A.D, during the reign of
Benghazi Emperor Justinian, several efforts were made to restore order and water
supplies that were interrupted during his predecessors reigns in the end of the
6th century A.D, by 642 A.D, Ptolemais with the advent of Islam
became an important harbor to Barce( AlMarj), which became again the capital of
Cyrenaica province.Tulamayhta museum exhibits various collections of the ancient
Ptolemais .this include various floor mosaics of the numerous Palaces that were
erected in the area in the 1st century A.D
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