In ancient times, Cyrenaica in eastern Libya existed as a kind of Mediterranean island, separated from the rest of Africa by the desert and linked to Crete and mainland Greece by the sea. Excavations show the Aegeans visited this part of Africa (known today as Barqa), where they traded with the local population, as early as the 14th century BC. It was here, according to myth, that the Argonauts received pledges, in the form of a handful of earth offered them by Eurypylos, the local deity.

The only known indigenous cult site in the region is the enigmatic temple sanctuary of Slontah (Aslonta / Suluntah), tucked away in a fold of the plateau known in Arabic as Jabel al Akhdar, the “Green Mountain”.