Cut into cliff face along the old road down to Apollonia and in the countryside in all directions for miles around Cyrene are the more than 2000 tombs of the old Necropolis. Originally built by the Greeks in the 6th century BC, they were used and added to by the Romans and Byzantines right up until the 6th century AD. Many of the tombs were later used by nomads for habitation, some of them being quite spacious. Some contain traces of the original architectural façades.
The hollows in front of some Greek tombs once held likenesses of Persephone, the goddess of death, while the Roman tombs held carved portraits of the deceased. On the hillside there are also some sarcophagi with lids.
