Cyrene, an ancient Greek and Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya, is the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region.

It gives eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times.Cyrene lies in a lush valley in the Jebel Akhdar uplands.

The city is named after a spring, Kyre, which the Greeks consecrate to Apollo.

It is also the seat of the Cyrenaics, a famous school of philosophy in the 3rd century BCE, founded by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates.

It is been nicknamed at this time as the "Athens of Africa".