Benghazi-Libya

Benghazi is an old city on the Mediterranean North East Libya. Benghazi's old name (given to her in the year 347 BC) was "Barneek" which is the name of a beautiful and brave princess who became the queen of her people during the Greek rule of the North African region. Benghazi saw good times and bad times during the greek, the Roman and the Bezantine eras before the Arabs conquered the city in the the begining of the 7th century. In 1450 a man named Ghazi or "Seedi Ghazi" as the locals called him moved to "Barneek" and died there after contributing good deeds to the city and to her people, so the people named the city after him "Bani Ghazi" , "Banghazi" or "Benghazi". In 1578 the Turks invaded benghazi and it was ruled by the Karamanlis from 1711 till 1835 when the Ottomans started their rule of the city till 1911. The Italians invaded Benghazi and the whole country of Libya in October 1911 and the city became under the Italian occupation till 1942 when the Allied forces defeated the Italians with the help of the Libyans and the city became under the rule of the British till 1949 when King Mohammed "Idris" As-Sanousi made Benghazi the capital of Barka (Cyrinaica). When Libya achieved its independance in 24 December 1951 Benghazi became the second capital of Libya (the first was Tripoli.) During World War II benghazi was bombed more than 1000 times and saw a lot of destruction. After Libya's independance the city was rebuilt and became one the most attractive cities in North Africa*ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dr_ibrahim_ighneiwa/benghc.htm