Barca (ancient city)

Barca

Arabic: برقة‎‎
Shown within Libya
Location	Libya
Region	Marj District
Coordinates	32°29′54″N 20°53′34″E / 32.498333°N 20.892778°E / 32.498333; 20.892778

Barca, also called Barce) (Greek: Βάρκη, Arabic: برقة‎‎, Berber: Berqa) is an Ancient city and former bishopric, which survives in both Latin Catholic and Orthodox titular see.

Barca was an ancient Greek colony and later a Roman and a Byzantine city in North Africa. It was in the coastal area of what is today Libya. As a Greek city, it was part of the Cyrenaican Pentapolis along with the city of Cyrene itself. Achaemenid king Darius I established Barcaean captives in a village in Bactria, which was still flourishing in Herodotus' time.

According to most archeologists, it was situated at Marj, but according to Alexander Graham it was at Tolmeita (Ptolemais). No remains of the ancient settlement are visible at Marj, but some of the finds made there during the Italian colonial dominance of Libya (1913–41) are on display in the museum at Tolmeita.

The city's name, Arabized as Barqah, came to refer to the former state and province of Cyrenaica.

Barce was part of the Exarchate of Africa until it was conquered by the Arabs in 643–644 during the Islamic conquest of North Africa. It originally served as the capital of the Barqah province of the Caliphate. When the Ottoman Turks conquered the region in 1521, they used the Turkish form "Barka" for the province, but did not retain the city's status as its capital.