BENGASI (anc. Euliesperides or Hesperides-Berenice), a seaport in Italian North Africa. Pop. (19 21) 32,600, 5,000 of whom are Italians, not including the garrison. It is on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf of Sidra and a salt marsh, in 3o° 7' N. lat. and 20° 3' E. long. Besides modern buildings it has one or two edifices of some interest, notably an ancient castle. The harbour is accessible only to vessels of light draught, but over £500,000 have been provided for its improvement. The export trade is largely in barley, shipped to British and other maltsters. The Sudan produce (ivory, ostrich feathers, etc.) formerly brought to Bengasi by caravan, has now been almost wholly di verted to Khartoum, though Bengasi is the starting point of the shortest route to Wadai. The neighbouring coast is frequented by Greek and Italian sponge-fishers. There is regular communica tion by steamer with Syracuse and Derria, and railways run north-east via El Abiar (37m.) to El Merg (66m.) and south-east to Sobik (35m.).
Founded by the Greeks of Cyrenaica under the name Hesper ides, the town received from Ptolemy III. the name of Berenice in compliment to his wife. The ruins of the ancient town, which superseded Cyrene and Barca as chief place in the province after the 3rd century A.D., are now nearly buried in the sand, which has invaded this once fertile region; but there are nu merous rock cut tombs of the Ptolemaic and Roman period, when there was a considerable Jewish colony. Nor are there any traces of the buildings attributed to Justinian, who is said to have fortified it. The modern town lies south-west of the original site. (For history see CYRENAICA.)