Cyrene

Cyrene is an ancient city near present day Shahhat in northeastern Libya, on a ridge of the Jebel Akhdar uplands about 600 meters above sea level, founded around 631 BC by Greek colonists from Thera, modern Santorini, under the leader Battus I. It became the chief of five cities known as the Pentapolis that gave the surrounding region its classical name, Cyrenaica, flourishing through Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods as an early center of Christianity and of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy founded by Aristippus; the site, with its temples, theaters, bathhouses and palatial residences, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 and was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2017.