Benghazi

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya and the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023, located on the Gulf of Sidra and serving as a major seaport. A Greek colony called Euesperides existed in the area from around 525 BC, and in the 3rd century BC it was relocated and refounded as the Ptolemaic city of Berenice, which prospered under Rome and eventually superseded Cyrene and Barca as the center of Cyrenaica. The city declined under Byzantine rule and was already a small town when the Arabs conquered it; after roughly four centuries of Ottoman rule, Italy captured Benghazi in 1911 and developed it extensively, especially in the late 1930s, before it changed hands repeatedly and suffered heavy damage during the Second World War. Rebuilt afterward, Benghazi became co-capital of the newly independent Kingdom of Libya, lost that status after Muammar Gaddafi's 1969 coup moved government offices to Tripoli, and became the starting point of the 2011 uprising against Gaddafi's government, a turning point in the Libyan Civil War. It remains one of Libya's three largest cities alongside Tripoli and Misrata and a center of the country's commerce, industry, transport and culture.