Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica (/saɪrᵻˈneɪ.ᵻkə/ SY-rə-NAY-ə-kə; Ancient Greek: Κυρηναϊκή Kyrēnaïkḗ, after the city of Cyrene; Arabic: برقة‎ Barqah;) is the eastern coastal region of Libya. Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it formed part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya 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 until 1943, then under British military and civil administration from 1943 until 1951, and finally in the Kingdom of Libya from 1951 until 1963. In a wider sense, still in use, Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya, including the Kufra District. Cyrenaica borders on Tripolitania in the northwest and on Fezzan in the southwest. The region that used to be Cyrenaica officially until 1963 has formed several shabiyat, the administrative divisions of Libya, since 1995.

The 2011 Libyan Civil War started in Cyrenaica, which came largely under the control of the National Transitional Council (headquartered in Benghazi) for most of the war.