Bengazi

Bengazi, a seaport town of North Africa, capital of the Turkish vilayet of Barca, finely situated on the east coast of the Gulf of Sidra. Pop. about 7000 (including some 2000 Levantines and 2500 Jews), who carry on a trade with Mediterranean ports in oxen, sheep, wool, sponges, ostrich feathers, and corn, receiving in return, hides, oil, soap, tobacco, &c.; but of the total imports (£115,000 a year), more than a third is made up of English cotton and woollen goods, coal and iron. There is a considerable caravan trade with the interior, where the nomad population pays an annual tribute of over £10,000, about a fourth of the entire revenue of the pashalic. About 260 ships yearly enter the harbour; it has a lighthouse, worked by the Constantinople 'Compagnie des Phares,' but is rapidly filling up with sand. The town is comparatively clean and well built, and possesses a fine bazaar, and several mosques and synagogues, and a Catholic church. Bengazi is the site of the ancient city of Hesperis, which rose to some importance under Ptolemy III., who called it Berenice, after his wife. The ruins lie to the north-east of the present town.