Benghazi in 3 days: the port city founded as the Greek colony Euesperides in the 5th century BCE, then Roman Berenice (named for the Ptolemaic queen who won the ancient Olympic chariot race — the first woman to win at the Olympics in her own right), then Ottoman, Italian colonial (the most elegant colonial seafront in Africa), British-liberated (the city changed hands four times in WWII), and the birthplace of the 2011 Libyan Revolution. The Lungomare is the most beautiful Italian colonial promenade in Africa. The Libyan mafrum (stuffed vegetable couscous) costs €3. The flamingo lagoon is free.
Benghazi old city medina: the Atiq Mosque (the "Old Mosque" — 16th-century Ottoman foundation on the foundations of a Byzantine church (itself on a Roman temple: the 2,500-year palimpsest of religious and cultural layers that defines historic Benghazi)). The covered souq: the Souq el-Jareed (the Dried Dates Market) — the oldest continuously operating market in Benghazi (dates, traditional textiles, spices, Libyan metalwork). The Ottoman fondouk: the caravanserai where trans-Saharan traders and their camels rested — Benghazi was the most important North African terminus of the Sahara trade routes until the early 20th century.
Benghazi Lungomare (the "sea-front" — the Italian colonial palm-lined seafront boulevard designed and built in the 1920s–1930s): the showpiece of Mussolini's "Quarta Sponda" (the Fourth Shore — Libya as Italy's fourth coastline). The finest Italian Rationalist architecture in Libya: the former Grand Hotel Berenice (Art Deco), the former Italian consulate, the Palazzo delle Poste. The portici (the ground-floor arcades): the same colonnaded walkways found in Bologna, Turin and Padua transplanted to the North African coast — the most important Italian contribution to the Benghazi urban form.
Suq al-Jreed (the Dried Dates Market): Cyrenaican medjool dates (the "king of dates" — the large, soft, caramel-flavored date: the most expensive date variety in the world market), deglet nour (the "date of light" — semi-dry, widely exported) and hallawi (the "sweet one" — medium-sized, intensely sweet). The Libyan atay tea ceremony: Chinese gunpowder green tea brewed with fresh mint, served in 3 tiny glasses (sweet → sweeter → "bitter as death": the Libyan proverb). The rghwa (the froth produced by pouring from height): the mark of quality and hospitality. Refusing all 3 glasses is considered impolite.
Benghazi waterfront seafood: the Benghazi upwelling (cold nutrient-rich water rising at the Benghazi embayment — the most productive fishing grounds in Libya). Sea bream (Sparus aurata — the "orada": the golden stripe between the eyes, the most prized Mediterranean fish). Red mullet (Mullus surmuletus — the "triglia": the most intensely flavored Mediterranean fish, prized by the Roman food writer Apicius as "the most exquisite of all seafood"). Mediterranean octopus (Octopus vulgaris — "akhbout": caught in traditional clay pot traps on the rocky reef bottom). With Libyan mafrum: hand-rolled couscous steamed with stuffed eggplant (filled with minced lamb + pine nuts + spices) in a spiced tomato-meat sauce.
Sidi Abeid (the ancient Euesperides/Berenice): the Greek colony founded c. 525 BCE by colonists from Cyrene. Name sequence: Euesperides ("city of the Good West Wind" — named for the Hesperides, the nymphs of the golden apple garden) → Hesperides → Berenice (renamed for Berenice II of Egypt: the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, the Olympic chariot racing champion (the first woman to win at the ancient Olympics in her own right), the patron of the poet Callimachus, and the model for the constellation Coma Berenices (her hair dedicated to Aphrodite for the safe return of her husband from war, then placed among the stars by the astronomer Conon of Samos)). The British-Libyan excavations (1952–1956) revealed the Hellenistic harbor district and street grid.
Al-Jumhuriya Street ("Republic Street" — the former Corso Vittorio Emanuele): the main commercial boulevard of the Italian colonial city (1920s–1930s). The finest Italian Rationalist architecture in Libya: the Banco di Napoli (now the Banco di Benghazi), the former Hotel de Benghazi (the most important Art Deco building on the boulevard), the Palazzo delle Poste (the most monumental public building). The portici: the Italian ground-floor arcades (the colonnaded walkways identical to those of Bologna, Turin and Padua) transplanted to the North African heat — protecting pedestrians and shoppers from sun and rain.
Benghazi War Memorial: commemorates Libya's multiple layers of conflict. The Omar Mukhtar monument: Mukhtar (1858–1931) — the Sheikh and the Senussi resistance leader of the Cyrenaican resistance to Italian colonization (the "Lion of the Desert"). Publicly hanged by the Italians on September 16 1931 in front of 20,000 Libyan prisoners at the Suluq concentration camp — at age 73, after a brief military trial. His execution became the defining founding myth of Libyan nationalism and the most important event in modern Libyan national consciousness. The Italian colonial wars (1911–1943): the mass deportations of the Cyrenaican population to the Agheila camps (1929–1933) killed an estimated 50,000–100,000 Libyans.
Sabkhat al-Salmani: the coastal saltwater lagoon east of Benghazi — the most important migratory bird staging site in eastern Libya. Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus): the flamingo population arrives from breeding sites in Tunisia and Sardinia in October, remaining until March. The pink coloration: produced by the carotenoid pigments in the brine shrimp (Artemia salina) and blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria) that are the flamingo's primary food (the filter-feeding bill strains the shallow saline water for these organisms). The sunset: the sky reflected in the still lagoon water, the flamingos moving through the golden light — the most spectacular sunset view in Benghazi.
Benghazi Museum of Antiquities: the Cyrenaican collections (the most important archaeological museum in eastern Libya). The Gorgon relief: the Archaic Greek terracotta Gorgon (Medusa) mask — the most important piece of Archaic Greek sculpture in Libya (used in Greek architectural decoration to ward off evil: one of the most complete and most artistically important Archaic Gorgon masks in existence). The Hadrian bust: the portrait of the emperor who visited Cyrenaica in 128 CE and rebuilt the cities devastated by the Jewish revolt of 115–117 CE (the Kitos War — the revolt that killed an estimated 220,000–240,000 people in Cyrenaica). Byzantine floor mosaics: 5th–6th century CE pavements from the Benghazi area basilicas — the most important early Christian mosaics in Libya.
Libyan mafrum lunch: the hand-rolled couscous (the finest-grained couscous in North Africa — grains the size of tiny pearls, steamed in the couscoussier (the two-level steamer pot)). The mafrum: the eggplant or potato hollowed with a cylinder-shaped core borer, stuffed with minced lamb + onion + egg + parsley + pine nuts + Libyan spice blend, fried until golden on the outside then braised in the spiced tomato and meat sauce. The shorba: the Libyan lamb soup — lamb bone broth + tomato + chickpeas + pasta + ras el hanout (the 20–30 spice blend including rose petals, mace, galangal, grains of paradise and cubeb pepper). Dessert: Cyrenaican medjool dates with wildflower honey.
Benghazi old port (Mina al-Qadim — in continuous use since the Ptolemaic period, 3rd century BCE). The traditional fishing dhows: the "dghaysa" — wooden lateen-rigged vessels with the triangular sail set on a long yard (the lateen sail: the most efficient fore-and-aft sail for sailing close to the wind — the most important Mediterranean sailing technology in history). The haraj (the fish auction): the most authentic and most chaotic daily event in Benghazi — the fishing boats return at sunset, the catch is laid out on the quayside, the auctioneers shout the prices and the buyers (the restaurant owners, the fish sellers and the housewives of Benghazi) bid for the fresh fish.
Farewell Libyan dinner: bazeen (the most important traditional Libyan dish — the densely cooked barley flour paste formed into a large mound, served on a single communal plate surrounded by the spiced lamb bone broth with fried onion rings and boiled eggs: eaten communally by hand in the traditional manner). Asida (the white cornmeal porridge — the most ceremonially important food in the Libyan Bedouin tradition: served at weddings, funerals and the celebration of the return from Mecca: the porridge with a well of smen (aged clarified butter) in the center and surrounded by date syrup (dibs)). The farewell atay: the 3-glass mint tea ceremony — "sweet as life, bitter as death."