Benghazi

Benghazi /bɛnˈɡɑːzi/ is the second largest city in Libya, the capital of the Cyrenaica region (or ex-Province), and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area (which includes the southern towns of Gimeenis and Suluq) is also a district of Libya. The port city is located on the Mediterranean Sea.

During the Kingdom era of Libya's history, Benghazi enjoyed a sort of joint-capital status (alongside Tripoli), possibly because the King used to reside in the nearby city of Bayda and the Senussis (royal family) in general were associated with Cyrenaica rather than Tripolitania. Benghazi continues to hold institutions and organizations normally associated with a national capital city. This creates a constant atmosphere of rivalry and sensitivities between Benghazi and Tripoli and by extension between the two regions (Cyrenaica and Tripolitania). The population of the entire district was 500,120 in 1995 (census) and has increased to 670,797 in the 2006 census.

Benghazi, as the principal city of eastern Libya, is one of Libya's major economic centres. The city has an important port which is vital to the economy, as Libya imports many foodstuffs and manufactured products. Benghazi is also an industrial and commercial centre in Libya. Major manufactured goods include processed food, textiles, tanning, processed salt and construction materials, particularly cement; a large cement factory is located in al-Hawari. Food processing is based on local fish, imported goods, and the produce of irrigated coastal lowlands and the nearby Jabal al-Akdhar Mountains, including cereal, dates, olives, wool and meat.[37]

Finance is also important to the city's economy, with the Libyan Bank of Commerce and Development maintaining branches in Benghazi; the Bank's headquarters is a high office tower on Gamal Abdel Nasser Street in el-Berka. Other large banks include the Central Bank of Libya office in the city centre.

History
The Ancient Greek city that existed within the modern day boundaries of Benghazi was founded around 525 BC and called Euesperides. It was probably founded by people from Cyrene or Barce on the edge of a lagoon which opened from the sea and which at the time may have been deep enough to receive small sailing vessels. The name was attributed to the fertility of the neighbourhood, which gave rise to the mythological associations with the garden of the Hesperides[15] The ancient city existed on a raised piece of land opposite what is now the Sidi-Abayd graveyard in the Northern Benghazi suburb of Sbikhat al-Salmani (al-Salmani Marsh).

Modern Benghazi, on the Gulf of Sidra, lies a little southwest of the site of the ancient Greek city of Berenice or Berenicis. That city was traditionally founded in 446 BC (different sources give different dates like 347 BC[18] or 249 BC), by a brother of the king of Cyrene, but got the name Berenice only when it was refounded in the 3rd century BC under the patronage of Berenice (Berenike), the daughter of Magas, king of Cyrene, and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, the ruler of Egypt. The new city was later given the name Hesperides, in reference to the Hesperides, the guardians of the mythic western paradise. The name may have also referred to green oases in low-lying areas in the nearby coastal plain. Benghazi later became a Roman city and prospered for 600 years. The city superseded Cyrene and Barca as the chief center of Cyrenaica after the 3rd century AD and during the Persian attacks; in 642–643, it had dwindled to an insignificant village among magnificent ruins.

In the 13th century, the small settlement became an important player in the trade growing up between Genoese merchants and the tribes of the hinterland. In 16th century maps, the name of Marsa ibn Ghazi appears.

Benghazi had a strategic port location, one that was too useful to be ignored by the Ottomans. In 1578, the Turks invaded Benghazi and it was ruled from Tripoli by the Karamanlis from 1711 to 1835; it then passed under direct Ottoman rule until 1911. Under Ottoman rule, Benghazi was the most impoverished of the Ottoman provinces. It had neither a paved road nor telegraph service, and the harbor was too silted to permit the access of shipping. Greek and Italian sponge fishermen worked its coastal waters. In 1858, and again in 1874, Benghazi was devastated by bubonic plague.

In 1911, Benghazi was invaded by the Italians. Nearly half the local population of Cyrenaica under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar resisted the Italian occupation. Cyrenaica suffered oppression, particularly under the fascist dictator Mussolini. About 125,000 Libyans were forced into concentration camps, about one-third of whom perished (mainly because of epidemics).

In the early 1930s, the revolt was over and the Italians—under governor Italo Balbo—started to assimilate the local population with friendly policies: many new villages for Cyrenaicans were created with health services and schools.

During the actions of Operation Compass during World War II, Benghazi was captured by the Australian 6th Division on 6 February 1941.

It was recaptured by Axis powers, led by General Erwin Rommel of the German Africa Corps, on 4 April.[21] It was taken again during Operation Crusader by the British on 24 December only to change hands again on 29 January 1942 in the Africa Corps's push to Egypt and the fateful Battle of El Alamein – 106 kilometres (66 miles) from Alexandria, Egypt – in which British troops led by General Bernard Montgomery defeated the Africa Corps in the decisive battle of the North African portion of World War II; the Africa Corps remnants then made a long steady retreat across Libya passing through Benghazi for the final time.

On 20 November, Benghazi was captured by the British Eighth Army and thereafter held by the British until over 250,000 German soldiers and their Italian allies in North Africa surrendered in May 1943. This after being hemmed into the Tunisian port cities of Tunis and Bizerte, by the British advancing from the east and an Anglo-American army, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, advancing from the west, this being America's entry into the European-North African theatre of World War II. This effectively ended Axis operations in the North African portion of World War II.

On 15 April 1986 US Air Force and Navy planes bombed Benghazi and Tripoli. President Ronald Reagan justified the attacks by claiming Libya was responsible for terrorism directed at the USA, including the bombing of La Belle discothèque in West Berlin ten days before.

In February 2011, violent protests erupted in Benghazi, part of the unrest that would eventually lead to the Libyan civil war. There were reports of the military and mercenaries being sent to "likely trouble spots", sections of the city being cordoned off, killings, and the destruction of the homes of those suspected of anti-Gaddafi regime sympathies. At least 200 people were killed in the protests against the government.

On 19 March, pro-Gaddafi forces almost defeated the rebellion when they began attacking the city of Benghazi in a major offensive, but were forced back the next day when NATO forces began implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.