Cyrene

Ancient Greek colony that became a major Roman city. The Temple of Apollo, theatre, and agora are magnificent. Cyrenaica wines were mentioned by ancient writers. The city sits on a dramatic escarpment overlooking the Mediterranean. Access is extremely limited.

What to do there

6 things to do

1. 1 Hunt the Coin That Invented the Heart Symbol History · Free

   Cyrene's economy ran on silphium — the most valuable plant that ever existed. The seed it produced is the reason you draw hearts the way you do.

   Where: At the entrance to the archaeological site (GPS: 32.8167°N, 21.8500°E, Shahhat, Libya). The plateau ridge where ancient Cyrene sat overlooking the Mediterranean. This step requires no admission — stand at the site boundary and look out across the ruins.

   What: Every coin ever minted by this city showed the same image on one side: a seed pod shaped exactly like a Valentine's heart. That plant was silphium — a member of the giant fennel family that grew ONLY in a 201 x 56 km strip of these hills. Nowhere else on Earth. Worth its weight in silver. Julius Caesar withdrew 1,500 pounds of it from the Roman treasury — not gold, not silver — to fund his civil war. The seed shape became associated with love and sexuality because silphium was possibly the world's first documented contraceptive. The Roman gynecologist Soranus prescribed a chickpea-sized dose to prevent conception. Cyrene's coins circulated across the Mediterranean world. The heart shape went with them. Two thousand years later you put it on Valentine's cards.

   How: Look down at the plateau below you — this escarpment at 600 metres, the Green Mountain (Jebel Akhdar) at your back, the Mediterranean visible in the distance. Somewhere in these hills, that plant grew. And then it didn't. Pliny the Elder recorded the moment it ended: the last known stalk of silphium was sent to Emperor Nero as a curiosity. Nero ate it immediately. The first recorded human-caused species extinction. Ask yourself what kind of city builds its entire identity — its economy, its coins, its reputation across the Roman world — on a single plant, and then watches it disappear.

   Backup: If site access is restricted due to current security conditions, research the coins online before your visit — search 'Cyrene silphium coin' in Google Images. The heart-shaped seed is unmistakable. The Cyrene Tridrachm (c. 500 BC) is the most famous example.

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2. 2 Stand Where the Man Measured the World History · Free

   In 240 BC, a man born in this city calculated Earth's circumference using a stick, a shadow, and geometry — and got it right to within 1%. Columbus, 1,700 years later, got it spectacularly wrong.

   Where: The ruins of the ancient agora at Cyrene, central archaeological zone. GPS: 32.8167°N, 21.8500°E. The agora is visible from the main access path through the site.

   What: Eratosthenes was born here in Cyrene around 276 BC. He became the third head librarian of the Library of Alexandria — responsible for all knowledge humanity had assembled. In approximately 240 BC he proved the Earth was round and calculated its circumference. Here's exactly how: he knew that at noon on the summer solstice, the sun shone straight down a well in Syene (modern Aswan) — zero shadow. In Alexandria, a vertical stick cast a shadow of 7.2 degrees at the same moment. That angle = 1/50 of a full circle. The distance between the two cities, measured by professional pace-walkers called bematists, was about 5,000 stadia. Multiply: 5,000 x 50 = 250,000 stadia circumference. The actual answer is roughly 40,075 km. Eratosthenes got 40,338 km. Error: less than 1%. With a stick and geometry. He also coined the word 'geography,' invented the Sieve of Eratosthenes for finding prime numbers, and made the first global map with parallels and meridians. He died in Alexandria in 194 BC, having gone blind. He was so depressed that he could no longer read that he reportedly starved himself to death. A man who measured the world, dead because he could no longer see it.

   How: Find the highest point of the main ruins plateau with a clear view toward the northeast horizon — roughly where Alexandria lies, 1,000 km away. Hold up your hand at arm's length. The angle from your palm to your thumb is roughly 10 degrees — just slightly more than what Eratosthenes measured between Alexandria and Syene. That tiny angle. That was enough to know the size of the entire planet.

   Backup: If site access is limited, this step works equally well from the Sanctuary of Apollo area. The intellectual weight of Eratosthenes needs no specific ruin — it requires only the knowledge that you are standing in the city where he was born.

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3. 3 Touch a Column That Survived the Jewish Revolt Adventure · Price: low

   The Temple of Zeus at Cyrene is roughly the same size as the Parthenon. It was nearly destroyed in 115 AD by a method of deliberate architectural violence that archaeologists still find extraordinary.

   Where: The Temple of Zeus, at the southern edge of the Cyrene archaeological zone, GPS approximately 32.8155°N, 21.8510°E. The temple's partially re-erected columns are visible from a distance. Entry to the site with a licensed guide costs approximately $15-20 USD per person as part of the guided tour (entry fees are typically included in organized tour packages; verify with your operator).

   What: This temple was 68.3 metres long with 46 Doric columns — nearly identical in scale to the Parthenon in Athens. It was built around 500-480 BC. In 115 AD, during the Kitos War (a massive Jewish revolt across the eastern Roman Empire), the Jewish community of Cyrene rose up against Roman rule. Archaeological evidence shows what happened to at least 46 of these columns: the stone base (crepidoma) was excavated away from underneath each column; temporary wooden struts held the columns up. Then the wood was set on fire. The struts burned, and 46 columns toppled outward simultaneously, like a chain of dominoes in slow motion. It is one of the most deliberately engineered acts of temple destruction on record. The Emperor Hadrian came personally to survey the damage in 118-119 AD. Full restoration wasn't completed until 172-175 AD under Marcus Aurelius — sixty years later. The columns you see today are partial re-erections from that era.

   How: Lay your hand on the re-erected column drums. The stone was quarried from the Jebel Akhdar limestone of these very hills. Look for the visible breaks in the column shafts where drums were re-assembled after the revolt. Ask your guide which columns are original versus reconstructed — the tooling marks differ.

   Backup: If the temple area is inaccessible due to storm damage or security restrictions, look for photographs of the fallen column drums at the site perimeter. The destruction pattern — columns fallen outward rather than inward — is documented in every archaeological report on Cyrene and visible even from a distance.

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4. 4 Read the Tomb That Predates Rome's Founding Adventure · Free

   The necropolis of Cyrene covers 10 square kilometres of limestone cliffs. The oldest tombs were cut into this rock before Rome was a city. You walk among 2,000 of them.

   Where: The northern necropolis sector, visible from the main archaeological site road on the approach from Shahhat village. GPS approximately 32.8210°N, 21.8530°E. The rock-cut tombs are carved directly into the limestone escarpment faces — you cannot miss them. This part of the necropolis is accessible without additional fee as you approach the main site.

   What: The Cyrene necropolis is one of the largest ancient burial landscapes on Earth: 10 km² of rock-cut tombs, over 2,000 documented structures, 1,200+ burial vaults cut directly into limestone bedrock. It began in 631 BC, the year the city was founded by Greeks from the island of Thera — modern Santorini. The oldest tombs are from the 6th century BC. Rome as a city was barely a generation old when the first graves were cut into these cliffs. The tombs evolve across seven centuries of occupation: simple shaft tombs from the archaic period, then elaborate Hellenistic chamber tombs with pedimented facades and columnar elements, then Roman-influenced barrel-vaulted interiors. You are reading the architectural history of the entire Mediterranean world in tomb facades.

   How: Find a section of the cliff face where you can see multiple tombs at different heights. Look for the carved pedimented doorways of the Hellenistic period — some of them have preserved the grooves for door hinges. Run your finger along a groove. That hinge sealed someone's tomb in approximately 300 BC. The city that was founded by storm-refugees from Santorini, that built the ancient world's most valuable commodity, that produced the man who measured the Earth — their dead are here, in these cliffs, still waiting.

   Backup: If access to the northern necropolis is restricted, the southern necropolis sector near the modern village of Shahat has additional visible tombs. Ask your guide to identify the earliest archaic examples versus the later Roman-influenced ones — the contrast is the entire story of how Cyrene changed over 700 years.

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5. 5 Taste the Flavor That Built This City Wine · Price: low

   Libya is dry. Not a drop of wine is legally available. But silphium — the plant that made Cyrene the wealthiest city in North Africa — can still be tasted. Its surviving relative is sold in every Indian grocery store on Earth.

   Where: This step happens BEFORE you travel. At any Indian or South Asian grocery store, ask for asafoetida (also spelled asafetida, or called 'hing' in Hindi). It costs roughly €1-2 for a small tin. Widely available in any city worldwide.

   What: When true silphium ran out — the last stalk eaten by Nero sometime around 54-68 AD — the Romans switched to asafoetida. Alexander the Great's expedition had found it in Persia and brought it back as a 'lesser silphium from the east.' Same genus (Ferula). Similar flavor. The cookbook of Apicius, Rome's definitive culinary text, is full of instructions for silphium/laser: mix it with pepper, cumin, coriander and vinegar for sauces; keep a stalk in a jar of pine nuts so they absorb the flavor (like vanilla in sugar); add a trace amount to wine to 'improve' it. The flavor of asafoetida, cooked: raw, it smells like sulfur and old boots. Heated in oil for 10 seconds, it transforms — deep, savory, garlicky-leek-caramelized onion. Some food historians call it 'the MSG of ancient Rome.' This is the flavor Cyrene was built on. The resin stored in Caesar's treasury. The seed on every coin.

   How: Heat a small amount of oil in a pan. Add a pinch — JUST a pinch, it is powerful — of asafoetida. Watch it sizzle for 5-10 seconds. Smell what happens. That transformation: from acrid to deep savory umami. That's what made this city rich. Now, somewhere in the hills above Shahhat, Ferula tingitana still grows wild — a possible close relative of silphium, unrecognized by the shepherds who graze past it. The plant may not be as extinct as we thought.

   Backup: If asafoetida is unavailable before departure, ask for it at the hotel in Benghazi or Al-Bayda where your tour group stays. It is commonly used in North African cooking. Alternatively, the Cyrenian food story (silphium, wheat exports, Roman trade) can be researched at the small local museum in the site visitor center if it is open during your visit.

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6. 6 Locate the Spring That Founded a City History · Free

   The Oracle at Delphi sent drought-stricken refugees from Santorini to found a city in Libya. They didn't know where Libya was. When they finally arrived, 7 years late, they built their first sanctuary around a spring. It's still there.

   Where: The Sanctuary of Apollo is the oldest structure in Cyrene, at the northern section of the archaeological site, GPS approximately 32.8195°N, 21.8505°E. Look for the most ancient-looking temple complex — built originally in the 7th century BC, it is where the city began.

   What: The founding story of Cyrene is one of the most complete origin narratives that survives from the ancient world. A group of Greeks had been expelled from Sparta, settled on the island of Thera (modern Santorini), and consulted the Oracle at Delphi about their misfortunes. Apollo told them to found a city in Libya. They ignored the advice for 7 years. For 7 years, Herodotus records, 'not a drop of rain fell in Thera.' Finally, starving and desperate, they sent a delegation to Crete to ask if anyone knew where Libya was. They found a merchant named Corobius who had visited. He guided them across the Mediterranean to a spring on this limestone ridge — a spring they named the Fountain of Apollo. The spring was the sign. You don't build a city in North Africa's semi-arid interior without guaranteed water. They built the Sanctuary of Apollo around that spring in 631 BC. The city that would produce silphium, Eratosthenes, Aristippus, Simon of Cyrene — it started here, at this water source, because the harvest failed on a volcanic island 1,200 kilometres away.

   How: Find the Sanctuary of Apollo and locate the Fountain of Apollo within it — your guide can point to the sacred spring. Stand at the oldest part of the sanctuary. Understand the sequence: drought on Santorini → crossing an unknown sea → following a Cretan merchant → finding a spring on an African ridge → a city that changed the Roman world. The Oracle was right.

   Backup: If the Apollo sanctuary is inaccessible (it suffered terrace damage from Storm Daniel in 2023), ask your guide about the founding story. The spring's location is documented in all site maps and guidebooks. Even seeing the escarpment position — why this particular ridge was chosen above all others in Cyrenaica — tells the story.

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