Tocra
Tocra, Taucheira or Tukrah, is a town on the coast of the Marj District in the Cyrenaica region of northeastern Libya, founded by Cyrene. It lay 200 stadia west of Ptolemais. Today it is a coastal town west of Marj.
History
Founded by the Greeks and considered by some to be part of the Pentapolis of Cyrenaica, at a later period it became a Roman colony, and was fortified by Justinian I. Taucheira was particularly noted for the worship of Cybele, in honour of whom an annual festival was celebrated.In the city fortifications from the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods have been found.
Name
Taucheira, Teucheira, Tauchira or Teuchira. Under the Ptolemies it obtained the name of Arsinoe, after Arsinoe II of Egypt, named by her brother and husband, Ptolemy Philadelphus. Later it became known as Tocra or Tukrah or Tokara, and then Al Quriyah or El Agouriya in Arabic.It is the same town erroneously written Τάριχα by Diodorus. It is still called Tochira.
The name Taucheira is of Tebu origin and is made up of three parts. The prefix Ta, Ti, Te, Tu, To and Tau all mean “land,” similar to Ta-Mery for Kemet and Ta-Sety for Nuba. The second part, Cheira, is made up of two parts. Chei literally means “mouth,” while Ra has layered meanings and, in this context, refers to closeness or adjacency, “right next to.” Thus, Taucheira literally means “the land next to the mouth,” and is more naturally understood as “the land touching the sea coast."