Susa or Soussa ( ; ar, سوسة, Sūsa; grc, Ἀπολλωνία, Apollōnía) is a town and
seaside resort
A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the German ' ...
in the
District of Jabal al Akhdar in north-eastern
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...
. Susa stands by the ruins of
Apollonia, Cyrenaica
Apollonia ( gr, Ἀπολλωνία) 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, to the southwest.
Apollonia becam ...
.
The town contains the
Apollonia Museum. It is located about 30 km northeast of
Bayda.
History
The Ancient City of Apollonia in
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...
was founded in 630 BC by Greek colonists and became a significant commercial centre in the southern
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
. It served as the harbour of
Cyrene, to the southwest.
Apollonia became autonomous from Cyrene at latest by the time the area came within the power of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, when it was one of the five cities of the Libyan
Pentapolis
A pentapolis (from Greek ''penta-'', 'five' and '' polis'', 'city') is a geographic and/or institutional grouping of five cities. Cities in the ancient world probably formed such groups for political, commercial and military reasons, as happene ...
, growing in power until, in the sixth century A.D., it became the capital of the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of
Libya Superior or Libya Pentapolitana. The city became known as Sozusa, which explains the modern name of Marsa Susa or Susa, which grew up long after the cessation of urban life in the ancient city after the Arab invasion of AD 643.
Sozusa was an episcopal see and is included in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
's list of
titular sees.
Turkish community
Susa is home to a forcibly exiled Turkish community, also referred to as "Turco-Romnoi" ("Turkish Rum" or "Turkish Greeks") from
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...
and Mainland Greece, arriving in
Ottoman Libya
The coastal region of what is today Libya was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1912. First, from 1551 to 1864, as the Eyalet of Tripolitania ( ota, ایالت طرابلس غرب ''Eyālet-i Trâblus Gârb'') or ''Bey and Subjects of Tri ...
after the
Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Another wave of Turkish exiles arrived after the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the " Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
, marking the city's second founding after its abandonment following the
Arab Conquest of the Maghreb.
[Enrico De Agostini, p. 334][Balta, E., & Ölmez, M. (2011). Between religion and language: Turkish-speaking Christians, Jews and Greek-speaking Muslims and Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. İstanbul: Eren.]
See also
*
List of cities in Libya
This is a list of the 100 largest populated places in Libya. Some places in the list could be considered suburbs or neighborhoods of some large cities in the list, so this list is not definitive.
''Source:Amraja M. el Khajkhaj, "Noumou ...
References
External links
Satellite map at Maplandia.com
Populated places in Jabal al Akhdar
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