Apollonia (Sousa)

Map of Apollonia, Libya.

Being only about 20 km north of Cyrene, Apollonia was established in the 7th century BC to serve as a seaport for the city of Cyrene. Its importance and success grew with time where it became more influential than Cyrene itself.  It was named after the Greek Sun-god Apollo and hence Apollonia, the Sun City, may have been built in his honour by the Greek colonists, to secure the protection of the god to safeguard the ships laden with goods. This may also explain the etymology of the present form of the name, namely Sousa, which some sources say comes from Sozousa (The Savior) and therefore Susa or Sousa may well have been the Byzantine replacement of the earlier pagan Apollonia.

Apollonia

The city offers a number of great sites to see, like its partially submerged harbour, rock-carved theatre, the Acropolis, the temples of Zeus and Apollo, the hot springs, the rock graves of Necropolis, the Byzantine churches, the Agora, the Basilicas, and the remains of a sunken or immersed Greek town (see map above). A number of the monuments surviving today date to the Roman and Byzantine periods.

The area around Apollonia is also the home of lush green groves, several attractive beaches, like those between al-Hena and Ras-al-Hamama, the biggest cistern in Africa, and the nearby Qaser Libya, the home of the Byzantine basilicas.

Apollonia.

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