Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica, also known as Kyrenaika, is the eastern coastal region of Libya, encompassing the area between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. In antiquity, its coastal region was called Pentapolis and was part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. Later, during the Islamic period, it was known as Barqa. Cyrenaica became an Italian colony in 1911 and, after 1934, was one of the three primary provinces of Italian Libya. From 1943 to 1951, it was under British administration, then part of the Kingdom of Libya until 1963. The 2011 Libyan Civil War began in Cyrenaica, and in 2012, a transitional council unilaterally declared it an autonomous region.