Italian Cyrenaica Italian Cyrenaica Italian Cyrenaica was an Italian colony, located in present-day eastern Libya, that existed from 1912 to 1934. It was part of the Italian North African territory conquered from the Ottoman Empire in 1911. The administrative capital was Benghazi. Italian Cyrenaica was formed in 1927, after it and Italian Tripolitania became independent colonial entities within Italian North Africa. In 1934, Italian Cyrenaica became part of Italian Libya. In the 1920s, Cyrenaica was the scene of fighting between Italian colonial forces and Libyan rebels who were fighting for independence from colonial rule. In 1931, the rebel independence leader Omar Mukhtar
Ptolemais, Cyrenaica port for the city of Barca, inland, he transformed into a city that enclosed 280 hectares within its walls. Ptolemais probably served as the residence of the Ptolemaic governor of the region but, in spite of its large area, its population did not rival that of Cyrene, which under Roman rule became the capital of the region that, from then on, and still today, is called Cyrenaica. However, the term "Pentapolis" also continued to be used. Ptolemais became a Roman possession in 96 BC. It was soon included in the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. With Diocletian's alteration of