Cyrene’s isolation from the continent, and the prevailing Mediterranean winds, destined her to be a point d’appuie for European civilization in Africa, although the same isolation impressed upon her certain cultural features of her own and determined her distinctive development. Thus, for a long time the country was more closely connected with Crete and Greece than with the remaining regions of Africa, and her links with Egypt, made permanent by the conquests of Alexander the Great, only became really stable under Roman rule. Rome recognized the situation for what it was when she united Cyrene administratively, not with Tripolitania or with Egypt, but with Crete, a striking testimony to Cyrene’s position on the part of a power so skilled in the creation and maintenance of communications. Only under Diocletian was Cyrene attached to Egypt.[4]
The difficulties facing Cyrene’s links with Europe, nevertheless, should not be exaggerated. Till recently the country was thought to lack good harbours, since her coast is rocky but not strongly indented. The scarp of the Jebel al-Ahdar, indeed, closes upon the shore and renders difficult access to the interior, and the only large port on the west, Bengazi, is exposed to the northern gales. Recent surveys, however,[5] have shown that the central sector of the coast possesses several small but viable bays suitable for the light vessels of ancient times (Phycus, Ausigda, and Naustathmos) in addition to the more important harbours of Ptolemais and Apollonia. The Greek colonists settled near the coast, and there generally remained; their two most ancient and notable inland settlements, Cyrene and Barka, ultimately lost their importance, which passed to their daughter-harbours, Apollonia and Ptolemais. This was caused, not only by the Greek reluctance to live far from the sea, but also by the country’s dependance on maritime communications and by the growing pressure of the native nomadic tribes. Even more decisive was the climatic factor, since only near the coast was rainfall sufficient for permanent agriculture without the use of water stored by means of dams and cisterns. Thus a certain contradiction was produced by a shortage of natural harbours and the necessity of sea communications, and this may explain why Cyrene never became a seapower comparable to Athens, Carthage or Rome.
The country can be divided into three zones, differing from one another in soil, climate and natural features. These are the plateau on the north (the Jebel al-Ahdar), the steppe, and, southernmost, the stony wastes that fade into the Sahara desert. The Jebel, the most prominent feature of the country, is a karst massif of miocene limestone, occupying the centre and greater part of the country, bordering closely with the coast, and falling gradually on the south through the steppe to the desert. It ends abruptly on the north, where it is highest, and falls seaward by three scarps which create two parallel terraces. The first and lowest, is a narrow strip not exceeding eight kilometres in width as far as Teucheira (Tocra) on the west; it is known as es-Sahal. It stretches from Bomba on the east to the Gulf of Syrtis on the west. On the west the escarpment swings away from the coast, forming the plains of Tocra and Bengazi between itself and the shore. The second terrace, known as al-Lusaita (“the middle”) is broader, narrowing as it goes eastward, but continuing broad to westward to become the fertile Plain of Barka, today the granary of Cyrenaica. The western Lusaita terrace curves south parallel with the Syrtic shore and disappears near es-Sulidema. Its eastern termination is at the cape of Ras-al-Tin. The Lusaita is cut by wadis, broken by bosses, and covered by red soil washed from the stream beds. Along it runs the Tariq al-Arqub, which may be compared with the ridgeways of the south of England, and constituted without a doubt the most ancient and fundamental route in the country. The third and uppermost terrace occupies the plateau summit, the Sidi el-Hamrin, the Jebel’s broadest massif, that falls gradually towards the south; its highest point is 800 m. above sea-level, and its scarp stretches from Derna on the east to Barka on the west, though not continuous throughout the central Jebel. The central plateau is rocky and cut by stream beds; part is undulating plainland, and there are also enclosed dales of limited size. Near Cyrene, Messa, Barka and al-Abbiar, there stretch considerable areas of fertile plainland. The plateau is further penetrated from the south by numerous narrow ravines, the most important being Wadi al-Kuf, which enters from the south-west and ends in the heart of the Jebel to west of Messa. This long deep ravine constitutes a hidden corridor of penetration into the country’s vitals, creating a grave problem in ancient times for the defence of permanent settlement against the raids of desert-dwellers.
Southward the green plateau fades into steppe, and on its desert fringe shallow depressions filled with eroded silt (Arabic:baltet) are to be found, divided from one another by low ridges. Finally the landscape becomes completely desert, with stretches of flint “hamadah” that form the approaches of the Saharah.
Cyrenaica is composed chiefly of Eocene and Oligocene limestones of marine origin;[6] the surface is covered chiefly by rocks of the Middle Miocene phase, permeable, fragmentated and honeycombed with numerous caves; the mountains of the Jebel are thus characterized by those features known geologically as Karst. It is these that determine the country’s water supply, which will be discussed at a later stage. In the western coastal sector, between Tocra and Bengazi, much sea water penetrates inland below ground-level, so forming saltwater lagoons which dry up in summer and furnish natural salt to the inhabitants.
The country’s internal communications present no great difficulty, and run generally from east to west. The main difficulty is constituted by the ascent of the coastal terraces, and also of the plateau at its east and west ends, at Derna and Tocra respectively. The Tarik el-Arkub and routes along the upper ridge of the Plateau serve east-west traffic, while the southern foot of the Jebel is skirted from east to west by the ancient Tarik al-’Azizah, which links Bengazi with Derna. Despite the penetration of convenient stream beds into the Jebel from the south, there appears to be no evidence that Cyrene was directly linked in ancient times with any route traversing the Saharah from north to south; these southern approaches, indeed were barred by the Calanshu Sand Sea and by the wastes of the Jebel Zelten.[7]
The climate of Cyrenaica, which is subject to the influence both of the Mediterranean and the desert, resembles in many ways that of the south of Israel, but is rather cooler. From January to March temperatures of 12-14 degrees are usual, while in July and August 28-29 degrees are reached on the plateau. The fluctuations in the coastal belt are less extreme, and at the highest point of the Jebel and along its watershed there are sharp differences between day and night temperatures caused by the proximity of the desert. Winter rains mixed with sleet sometimes fall on the plateau, which occasionally also experiences frost. The Plateau summer temperatures are generally lower than those of the lower areas to west and south, but a hot wind, the Jibli, blows from the south in the autumn and spring and is apt to parch the field crops in their period of vital growth.
4
But in the second century of the current era, after the Jewish rebellion, part of the country’s eastern territory was transferred to Egypt, apparently for economic reasons.
5
G. D. B. Jones, J. H. Little,
6
For the geology of Cyrenaica, F. Mühlhofer,