Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/35

 BENGHAZI. 19 and-twenty centuries ago. The Greek Bark^ became the Barka of the Arabs, and, like Cyrene, gave its name to the whole region from the Egyptian frontier to the Greater Syrtis. Although, unlike its rival, possessing no im]x>sing ruins of the Hellenic period, it enjoyed great importance during mediuoval times, as the chief military station for the Arab expeditions between Alexandria and Tunis. At that time it was the centre of a large trade in provisions and supplies of all sorts. But of those prosperous days Barka has preserved nothing but the ruins of a castle, and some extensive cisterns, which were needed to husband the water, the place being destitute of the perennial springs found at Cyrene. Under the Ptolemies Barka was eclipsed by its marine neighbour, PtolemaU, a name still surviving in the slightly modified form of Tolniitah. The town itself has disappeared, but traces remain of several edifices, and of its enclosures, which had a circumference of over 4 miles. Other ruins are occupied by the Agail tribe, a Marabut community, which through professional jealousy long resisted the SenCl- siya propaganda, but was at last compelled to yield. Although nearly choked with sand, the port still affords good shelter to small craft. As far as Benghazi, over 60 miles to the south-west, no other inlet along the coast offers equal facilities for landing. The ancient Teukhera, another seaport, which with Cyrene, ApoUonia, Barke, and Hesperides formed one of the five cities of Pentapolis, has preserved its name under the Arabic form of Tokra. But the ofiicial titles of Arsinoe, and C/eopatris, by which it was known under the Ptolemies, have long been forgotten. Here are neither temple nor port, and little beyond a few huts and some tombs in which the Arabs reside during the summer ; but the walls are amongst the best-preserved ramparts bequeathed to us by antiquity. Although rebuilt by Justinian, they stand on far older foundations, several fragments dating from the Macedonian epoch. These magnificent enclosures are flanked by twenty-four square towers. Benghazi. Benghazi is the modem representative of Euhesperides, Hesperidcs, or Ilespen'a, 80 named probably because it was situated to the west of the region of Cyrenaica. Later it took the name of Berenice, in honour of the Cyrenian princess married to Ptolemy Evergetes ; while its present designation comes from a " saint," whose tomb stands on the sea-coast a little to the north. Benghazi, capital of the province of Barka and of all eastern Tripolitana, occupies the whole site of the ancient Hesperides, except a portion of the headland crowned by the castle, which was washed away by the waves, the debris contribut- ing to fill up the old port. The town lies at the southern extremity of the rocky promontory enclosed south and west by the sea. Eastwards stretches a salt lake which, even during the historic period, still formed part of the Mediterranean, and which, in stormy weather, is even now occasionally encroached upon by the waves. In summer it presents nothing but a muddy bed covered with saline efflorescences. The isthmus between lake and sea is commanded by an eminence supposed to be