Cyrene was an ancient Greek and Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya. It was the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave 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 was named after a spring, Kyre, which the Greeks consecrated to Apollo. It was also the seat of the Cyrenaics, a famous school of philosophy in the 3rd century BC, founded by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates. It has been nicknamed then as the "Athens of Africa". Details in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrene,_Libya
PHOTO: general view of the archaeological site / STAMP LEFT: Temple of Zeus / STAMP RIGHT: ruins in lower Cyrene / STAMP ISSUE: Libya 1984 issue "UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya"
PHOTO: general view of the archaeological site / STAMP LEFT: Temple of Zeus / STAMP RIGHT: ruins in lower Cyrene / STAMP ISSUE: Libya 1984 issue "UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya"