Benghazi is Libya's second largest conurbation, and the principle city of the Cyrenaica region of the country, 1,000km east of Tripoli. It is the start point for the spectacular Greek and Byzantine ruins and the attractive, rocky, fertile Jebel Akhdar, northern Libya's highest mountain range. Apollonia, Barce, Cyrene, Tocra and Ptolemais comprise the five cities of the ancient Greek Pentapolis, with strong Byzantine influence in Apollonia and Ptolemais, and in the unique mosaics found at Qasr Libia. If you see nothing else, Cyrene's awesome Temple of Zeus stands head and shoulders with the ruins of Egypt and the Parthenon of Athens. And driving along the Jebel Akhdar, several hundred meters above the coastal plain, crossing craggy valleys riddled with caves snaking through the hills, and looking down on fields of corn, olive and fruit groves, bee hives and grazing cattle, it is hard to imagine you are just 100km from the start of the Sahara desert.