The the former port for cyrene spreads sparks along the Mediterranean shoreline as the ancient Greeks, and Romans always chose beautiful locations for their settlements. With a wealth of Roman, Greek, and Byzantine buildings, Apollonia gives an unmistakable sense of walking amid the accumulating splendour of the great civilisations of ancient world. Apollonia the harbour if Cyrene is located about 20 km to the west, and because of this it played a critical role in the prosperity of Cyrene and the other cities in de region of Pentapolis. The cities of Pentapolis included beside Cyrene, the cities of Apollonia, Ptolemais or Barca, Tocra, and Benghazi. In those days, Cyrenaica was part of greater Egypt and often simply assimilated to Egypt itself. The region was very fertile and produced wheat and barley, as well as olive oil and wine; the orchards in turn were filled with fig and apple-trees; sheep and cattle roamed widely; and above all, this was the only place in the world where silphium grew, a natural medicine, a contraceptive and aphrodisiac.
