Bible Locations

Cyrene was a Greek city in North Africa, in what is now eastern Libya, near the coast, founded by Greek colonists around 631 BC. It stood on a high plateau with good farmland and became wealthy from grain and a medicinal plant called silphium. Many Jews lived there, settled under the Ptolemies. Simon of Cyrene, "the father of Alexander and Rufus," was forced to carry Jesus' cross (Mark 15:21). Jews from Cyrene were in Jerusalem at Pentecost (Acts 2:10), and some belonged to the Synagogue of the Freedmen that argued with Stephen. After persecution, "men from Cyprus and Cyrene" went to Antioch and began preaching to Greeks (Acts 11:20). Lucius of Cyrene was one of the prophets and teachers there (Acts 13:1). In AD 115 to 117, a major Jewish revolt broke out in Cyrene against Rome. Its impressive ruins, near modern Shahhat, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.