Apollonia, Cyrenaica

For other uses of Apollonia, see Apollonia (disambiguation).

Map of Apollonia

Map of underwater ruins at Apollonia made by divers in 1958-1959

Late apsidal building at Apollonia superimposed on earlier structures (grid square C4) drawn by divers in 1958-1959

Theatre in Apollonia

Palace in Apollonia with the Eastern Basilica in the background

Apollonia (Greek: Απολλωνία) in Cyrenaica (modern Libya) was founded by Greek colonists and became a significant commercial centre in the southern Mediterranean. It served as the harbour of Cyrene, 20 km (12 mi) to the southwest. The Greek geographer and mathematician Eratosthenes was born there.

Apollonia was one of the five towns of the Libyan Pentapolis. The early foundation levels of the city of Apollonia are below sea level due to submergence in earthquakes, while the upper strata of the latest Byzantine Christian periods are several meters above sea level, built upon the accumulated deposits of previous periods. The existence of buildings in the sea was noted by Beechey (1827), with some rough drawings. The main archaeological sources on land are Goodchild for publications in the 1950’s, and Laronde more recently. In 1958 and 1959 Nicholas Flemming, then an undergraduate at Cambridge University, led teams of undergraduates trained in scuba diving and underwater surveying to map the large sector of the city beneath the sea. The results of this work were published, complete with maps and diagrams of underwater buildings in the references cited below. Carlo Beltrame and colleagues have recently made an underwater photographic survey of some of the buildings.

Ruins

The ruins of Apollonia are sited by the modern town of Susa. The Apollonia (Susa) Museum houses many artifacts found on the ancient site, Appolonia appears to have been hit by the tsunami caused by the Crete earthquake of 21 July 365 AD.

Churches

Apollonia is particularly known for its ruins of three churches (out of 5 originally standing). These date from the Byzantine period.

Palace

The Palace was last used as the Byzantine Duke's Palace and contains over 100 rooms. The previous use was as a Roman military commander's house.

Theatre

The stunning Greek theatre stands by the sea outside the old city walls.

The ancient theatre of Apollonia.

See also

• Barca
• Ptolemais, Cyrenaica

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• LookLex
• Beechey, F.W. 1827. Proceedings of an Expedition to Explore the North African coast. John Murray, London.
• Flemming, N.C. 1959. Underwater adventure in Apollonia. Geographical Magazine, v. 31, pp. 497-508.
• Flemming, N.C. 1971. Cities in the Sea. Doubleday, New York, 222 pp; New English Library, London, 222pp.
• Flemming, N.C. and Webb, C.O, 1986. Tectonic and eustatic coastal changes during the last 10,000 years derived from archaeological data. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie. December, Suppl - Bd62, p.1 29.