1.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
2.
Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
3.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
4.
Hama
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Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located 213 km north of Damascus and 46 kilometres north of Homs and it is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000, Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Aleppo, Damascus, the city is renowned for its seventeen norias used for watering the gardens, which are locally claimed to date back to 1100 BC. Though historically used for purpose of irrigation, the norias exist today as an almost entirely aesthetic traditional show, in the last decades, the city of Hama has become known as a center of the anti-Baath opposition in Syria, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood. The city was again the site of conflict between the Syrian military and opposition forces as one of the main arenas of the Syrian civil war during the 2011 siege of Hama. The ancient settlement of Hamath was occupied from the early Neolithic to the Iron Age, remains from the Chalcolithic have been uncovered by Danish archaeologists on the mount on which the former citadel once stood. The excavation took place between 1931 and 1938 under the direction of Harald Ingholt, the stratigraphy is very generalized, which makes detailed comparison to other sites difficult. Level M contained both white ware and true pottery and it may be contemporary with Ras Shamra V. The overlying level L dates to the Chalcolithic Halaf culture, mitanni was subsequently overthrown by the Hittites, who controlled all of northern Syria following the famous Battle of Kadesh against Ancient Egypt under Ramesses II near Homs in 1285. In early 19th century, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was the first to discover Hittite or Luwian hieroglyphic script at Hama, the site also shows Assyrian and Aramaean settlement. When the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III conquered the north of Aramea reached Hamath in 835 BC, irhuleni of Hamath and Hadadezer of Aram-Damascus led a coalition of Aramean cities against the encroaching Assyrian armies. According to Assyrian sources, they were confronted by 4000 chariots,2000 horsemen,62, the Assyrian victory seems to have been more of a draw, although Shalmaneser III continued on to the shore and even took a ship to open sea. In the following years, Shalmaneser III failed to conquer Hamath or Aram-Damascus, after the death of Shalmaneser III, the former allies Hamath and Aram-Damascus fell out, and Aram-Damascus seems to have taken over some of Hamaths territory. An Aramaic inscription of Zakkur, dual king of Hamath and Luhuti, tells of an attack by a coalition including Samal under Ben-Hadad III, son of Hazael, zakir was besieged in his fortress of Hazrak, but saved by intervention of the God Baalshamin. Later on, the state of Samal came to rule both Hamath and Aram, in 738 BC, Hamath is listed among the cities again conquered by Assyrian troops. Over 30,000 natives were deported to Ullaba and replaced with captives from the Zagros Mountains, after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel, Hamaths king Ilu-Bidi led a failed revolt of the newly organized Assyrian provinces of Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, and Samara. Styling himself the Destroyer of Hamath, Sargon II razed the city ca 720 BCE, recolonized it with 6,300 Assyrians and he also carried off to Nimrud the ivory-adorned furnishings of its kings. The few Biblical reports state that Hamath was the capital of a Canaanite kingdom, whose king congratulated King David on his victory over Hadadezer, king of Zobah
5.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943
6.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
7.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
8.
Homs
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Homs, previously known as Emesa, is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 501 metres above sea level and is located 162 kilometres north of Damascus, located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast. Its population reflects Syrias general religious diversity, composed of Sunni and Alawite, there are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a world heritage site. Homs did not emerge into the record until the 1st century BCE at the time of the Seleucids. It later became the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesani dynasty who gave the city its name, originally a center of worship for the sun god El-Gabal, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century and made capital of a district that bore its current name, throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the citys strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, in the ongoing Syrian civil war, Homs became an opposition stronghold and the Syrian government launched a military assault against the city in May 2011. The following Siege of Homs left much of the city completely destroyed, the war in the city ended in 2015 when rebels evacuated the city, resulting in a government victory. The origin of the modern name is that it is an Arabic form of the citys Latin name Emesus. The name Emesa seems to derive from the nomadic Arab tribe, called Emesenoi by the Greeks and the Romans, Emesa was shortened to Homs or Hims by its Arab inhabitants, many of whom settled there prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria. This name has been preserved throughout the period of Islamic rule continuing to the present day and it was known as la Chamelle by the Crusaders, although they never ruled the city. For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key market, production site. It has also provided security services to the hinterland of Syria, excavations at the Citadel of Homs indicate that the earliest settlement at the site dates back to around 2300 BCE. Biblical scholars have identified the city with Zobah mentioned in the Bible, in 1274 BCE, a battle took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River near Homs. It was possibly the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5, at this time, Greek philosopher Strabo spoke of a tent-dwelling tribe called the Emesani living in the area around the Orontes and south of the Apamea region. They were an Arab tribe in the area and settled in Emesa—which derived its name from them. Their chief at the time, Sampsiceramus I, gained the status as King of Emesa, but their capital was at Arethusa, a city north of Emesa, also along the Orontes River
9.
Jisr al-Shughur
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Jisr ash-Shugur is a city in the Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria. Situated at an altitude of 170 metres above sea level on the Orontes river, Jisr ash-Shugur has long been an important stopping point on trade routes and is situated on the main route between Latakia,75 kilometres to the west and Aleppo 104 kilometres to the east. Located in the alluvial plain of the Ghab valley on the eastern side of the An-Nusayriyah Mountains. The ancient city of Qarqar is thought to have been situated some 7 kilometres south of the modern town, the Romans called it Niaccuba and built a stone bridge there across the Orontes. The bridges V-shaped design was intended to enable it to withstand the force of the rivers current, the city has been described as conservative and predominately Sunni Muslim with a history of unrest against the government of the ruling secular Arab nationalist Baath party. It was the scene of a killing by Syrian security forces in 1980 that prefigured the later. On 9 March 1980, against a background of anti-government protests across Syria, inhabitants of Jisr ash-Shugur marched on the local Baath Party headquarters, the police were unable to restore order and fled. Some demonstrators seized weapons and ammunition from an army barracks. At least two hundred people were arrested, the following day a military tribunal ordered the execution of more than a hundred of the detainees. In all, about 150–200 people were said to have been killed, violence broke out again in Jisr ash-Shugur on 4 June 2011, three months into the Syrian civil war. Armed gangs attacked local security forces, killed 120 members of the security forces and seized control of the city, some local witnesses denied the governments version of events, claiming that the dead were killed by their own side for defecting. The Syrian military launched an operation in a crackdown against the armed groups. The operation lasted until 12 June 2011, the city was reported to have been largely abandoned by its inhabitants, many of whom fled to neighbouring Turkey, as Syrian Army units massed outside to retake it. In December 2011–January 2012, FSA took control, establishing a key rebel center, ln June 2012, the FSA was still in control. In October 2012, the Syrian government was reported by Al Jazeera to be in control of the town, however, on 25 April 2015, the city was captured by an alliance of Islamist insurgents, including the Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Turkistan Islamic Party. The city has become a stronghold of the TIP, and reportedly 3,500 Uyghurs have since settled in the city
10.
Antakya
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Antakya, is the seat of the Hatay Province in southern Turkey. In ancient times, Antakya was known as Antioch, and was for one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. It was an early center of Christianity. It has a population of about 250,000, most of the population speaks Turkish as their native language, while a minority are native Arabic speakers. Antakya is situated in a well-watered and fertile valley, the area of Antioch has been occupied by humans since the Calcolithic era, as revealed by archeological excavations of the mound of Tell-Açana, among others. The King of Macedonia and Greece Alexander the Great, after defeating the Persians in the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, followed the Orontes south into Syria and occupied the area. The city of Antioch was founded in 300 BC, after the death of Alexander, AD with the rise of Islam, and after the 10th c. In 637, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, the city became known in Arabic as أنطاكيّة. In 969, the city was recovered for the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas by Michael Bourtzes and the stratopedarches Peter. It soon became the seat of a dux, who commanded the forces of the themes and was the most important officer on the Empires eastern border. In 1078, Philaretos Brachamios, an Armenian rebel seized power and he held the city until the Seljuk Turks captured it from him in 1084. The Sultanate of Rum held it only fourteen years before the Crusaders arrived, the Crusaders Siege of Antioch resulted in its fall and the Crusaders caused significant damage during the First Crusade including a 3-day massacre of its population both Christian and Muslim. Following the defeat of the Turkish garrison, Bohemond I became its overlord and it remained the capital of the Latin Principality of Antioch for nearly two centuries. In 1268 it fell to the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Baibars after another siege, Baibars proceeded to massacre the Christian population. In addition to suffering the ravages of war, the city lost its importance because trade routes to the Far East moved north following the 13th-century Mongol conquests. Antioch never recovered as a city, with much of its former role falling to the port city of Alexandretta. An account of both cities as they were in 1675 appears in the diary of the English naval chaplain Henry Teonge, the city was the center of the Sanjak of Antakya, part of the Damascus Eyalet. In 1822, Antakya was hit by an earthquake and damaged, when Ottoman general Ibrahim Pasha established his headquarters in the city in 1835, it had only some 5,000 inhabitants
11.
Beqaa Valley
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The Beqaa Valley, also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ and Becaa and known in Classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanons most important farming region, industry also flourishes in Beqaa, especially that related to agriculture. The Beqaa is located about 30 km east of Beirut, the valley is situated between Mount Lebanon to the west and Anti-Lebanon mountains to the east. It forms the northeasternmost extension of the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Syria to the Red Sea, Beqaa Valley is 120 kilometres long and an average 16 kilometres wide on average. It has a Mediterranean climate of wet, often snowy winters and dry, the region receives limited rainfall, particularly in the north, because Mount Lebanon creates a rain shadow that blocks precipitation coming from the sea. The northern section has an annual rainfall of 230 millimetres ). Two rivers originate in the valley, the Orontes, which flows north into Syria and Turkey, and the Litani, which flows south and then west to the Mediterranean Sea. From the 1st century BC, when the region was part of the Roman Empire, today the valley makes up 40 percent of Lebanons arable land. The northern end of the valley, with its scarce rainfall and less fertile soils, is used primarily as grazing land by pastoral nomads, farther south, more fertile soils support crops of wheat, corn, cotton, and vegetables, with vineyards and orchards centered on Zahlé. The valley also produces hashish and cultivates opium poppies, which are exported as part of the drug trade. Since 1957 the Litani hydroelectricity project—a series of canals and a dam located at Lake Qaraoun in the end of the valley—has improved irrigation to farms in Beqaa Valley. Zahlé is the largest city and the capital of the Beqaa Governorate. It lies just north of the main Beirut–Damascus highway, which bisects the valley, the majority of Zahlés residents are Lebanese Christian, including those who are Melkite Greek Catholic, Maronite Catholic, and Greek Orthodox Christians. The town of Anjar, situated in the part of the valley, has a predominately Armenian Lebanese population and is also famous for its 8th-century Arab ruins. The majority of the inhabitants of the districts of Beqaa, Baalbek and Hermel, are Lebanese Shia, with the exception of the town of Deir el Ahmar. The Baalbeck and Hermel districts have a Christian and Sunni minority, the western and southern districts of the valley also have a mixed population of Muslims, Christians and also Druze. The town of Jib Janine with a population of about 9,000, is situated midway in the valley, Jib Janine is the governmental center of the region known as Western Beqaa, with municipal services like the emergency medical services, a fire department, and a courthouse. Other towns in the Western Beqaa district are Machghara, Sabghine, Kamed al Lawz, Qab Elias and these towns are all a mix of different Lebanese religious confessions
12.
Hatay Province
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Hatay Province is a province in southern Turkey, on the eastern Mediterranean coast. The administrative capital is Antakya, and the major city in the province is the port city of İskenderun. It is bordered by Syria to the south and east and the Turkish provinces of Adana, the province is part of Çukurova, a geographical, economical and cultural region that covers the provinces of Mersin, Adana, Osmaniye, and Hatay. There are border crossing points with Syria in the district of Yayladağı, although the two countries have remained generally peaceful in their dispute over the territory, Syria has never formally renounced its claims to it. The region was the center of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, home to the four Greek cities of the Syrian tetrapolis, from 64 BC onwards the city of Antioch became an important regional centre of the Roman Empire. The area was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate in 638 and later it came under the control of the Ummayad, from the 11th century onwards, the region was controlled by the Aleppo-based Hamdanids after a brief rule of Ikhshidids. In 969 the city of Antioch was recaptured by the Byzantine Empire and it was conquered by Philaretos Brachamios, a Byzantine general in 1078. He founded a principality from Antioch to Edessa and it was captured by Suleiman I, who was Sultan of Rum, in 1084. It passed to Tutush I, Sultan of Aleppo, in 1086, Seljuk rule lasted 14 years until Hatays capture by the Crusaders in 1098, when it became the centre of the Principality of Antioch. Hatay was captured from the Crusaders by the Mameluks in 1268, by the time it was taken from the Mameluks by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I in 1516, Antakya was a medium-sized town on 2 km² of land between the Orontes River and Mount Habib Neccar. Under the Ottomans the area was known as the sanjak of Alexandretta, a map published circa 1911 highlighted that the ethnic make up was majority Arab with smaller communities of Armenians and Turks. Many consider that Alexandretta had been part of Syria. Maps as far back as 1764 confirm this, during the First World War in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated most of Syria was occupied by the British forces. But when the Armistice of Mudros was signed at the end of the war, nevertheless, after the armistice it was occupied by the British forces an operation which was never accepted by the Ottoman side. Later like the rest of Syria it was handed to France by the British Empire, the subsequent Treaty of Lausanne also put Alexandretta within Syria. A French-Turkish treaty of 20 October 1921 rendered the Sanjak of Alexandretta autonomous, out of 220,000 inhabitants in 1921,87,000 were Turks. Along with Turks the population of the Sanjak included, Arabs of various denominations, Greek Catholics, Syriac-Maronites, Jews, Syriacs, Kurds. In 1923 Hatay was attached to the State of Aleppo, and in 1925 it was attached to the French mandate of Syria
13.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
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Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
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River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
16.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
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Levant
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The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean. The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French and it derives from the Italian Levante, meaning rising, implying the rising of the sun in the east. As such, it is equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq. Eventually the term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine, in 1581, England set up the Levant Company to monopolize commerce with the Ottoman Empire. The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and this is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used synonymously with Syria-Palestine. Some scholars misunderstood the term thinking that it derives from the name of Lebanon, today the term is typically used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. It does not include Anatolia, the Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper, the Sinai Peninsula is sometimes included. The Levant has been described as the crossroads of western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and northeast Africa, the populations of the Levant share not only the geographic position, but cuisine, some customs, and a very long history. They are often referred to as Levantines, the term Levant, which appeared in English in 1497, originally meant the East in general or Mediterranean lands east of Italy. It is borrowed from the French levant rising, referring to the rising of the sun in the east, the phrase is ultimately from the Latin word levare, meaning lift, raise. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή, in Germanic Morgenland, in Italian, in Hungarian Kelet, in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant, most notably, Orient and its Latin source oriens meaning east, is literally rising, deriving from Latin orior rise. The notion of the Levant has undergone a process of historical evolution in usage, meaning. While the term Levantine originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it came to refer to regional native. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire, at this time, the Far East was known as the Upper Levant. In early 19th-century travel writing, the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman empire, in 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference the place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon was called the Levant states, today, Levant is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to it being a wider, yet relevant, archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of the Southern Levant. Two academic journals were launched, Journal of Levantine Studies, published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review
18.
Antioch
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Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient Greco-Roman city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. Its ruins lie near the city of Antakya, Turkey. Antioch was founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, the citys geographical, military, and economic location benefited its occupants, particularly such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, and the Persian Royal Road. It eventually rivaled Alexandria as the city of the Near East. It was also the center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. Most of the development of Antioch was done during the Roman Empire. Antioch was called the cradle of Christianity as a result of its longevity, the Christian New Testament asserts that the name Christian first emerged in Antioch. It was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis, a single route proceeds south in the Orontes valley. The settlement of Meroe pre-dated Antioch, a shrine of the Semitic goddess Anat, called by Herodotus the Persian Artemis, was located here. This site was included in the suburbs of Antioch. There was a village on the spur of Mount Silpius named Io and this name was always adduced as evidence by Antiochenes anxious to affiliate themselves to the Attic Ionians—an eagerness which is illustrated by the Athenian types used on the citys coins. Io may have been an early colony of trading Greeks. John Malalas also mentions a village, Bottia, in the plain by the river. Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great is said to have camped on the site of Antioch and this account is found only in the writings of Libanius, a 4th-century orator from Antioch, and may be legend intended to enhance Antiochs status. But the story is not unlikely in itself, after Alexanders death in 323 BC, his generals divided up the territory he had conquered. Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four sister cities in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch and he is reputed to have built sixteen Antiochs. Seleucus founded Antioch on a site chosen through ritual means, an eagle, the bird of Zeus, had been given a piece of sacrificial meat and the city was founded on the site to which the eagle carried the offering. Seleucus did this on the 22nd day of the month of Artemisios in the year of his reign
19.
Assyrian people
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Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans, or as Arameans and they speak modern Aramaic, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, the areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Australia, Europe, Russia. Assyrians are predominantly Christian, mostly adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite, the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, mostly speak the Central and Western branches. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur perhaps as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, who was a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of early kings would have been local rulers. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abrahams grandson, however, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever, there is no mention in Assyrian records. The Assyrian people, after the fall of their empire, fell under foreign domination ever since, the Persian Empire was founded, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, the Assyrian army accounted for three legions of the Roman army, defending the Parthian border. In the 1st century, it was the Assyrian army that enabled Vespasians coup, from the later 2nd century, the Roman Senate included several notable Assyrians, including Tiberius Claudius Pompeianus and Avidius Cassius. From the 1st century BC, Assyria was the theatre of the protracted Roman–Persian Wars and it would become a Roman province from 116 to 363 AD. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur, the Greeks, Parthians, and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive. The Assyrians were Christianized in the first to third centuries in Roman Syria, the population of the Sasanian province of Asōristān was a mixed one, composed of Assyrians, Arameans in the far south and the western deserts, and Persians. The Greek element in the cities, still strong during the Parthian Empire, the majority of the population were Eastern Aramaic speakers. Along with the Arameans, Armenians, Greeks, and Nabataeans, the Council of Seleucia of ca.325 dealt with jurisdictional conflicts among the leading bishops
20.
Syriac language
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Syriac /ˈsɪri. æk/, also known as Syriac Aramaic, is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent and Eastern Arabia. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature, Old Aramaic was adopted by the Neo-Assyrian Empire when they conquered the various Aramean city-kingdoms to its west. The Achaemenid Empire, which rose after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, also adopted Old Aramaic as its official language, during the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity. Along with Latin and Greek, Syriac became one of the three most important Christian languages in the centuries of the Christian Era. Primarily a Christian medium of expression, Syriac had a cultural and literary influence on the development of Arabic. Syriac remains the language of Syriac Christianity to this day. Syriac is a Middle Aramaic language and, as such, a language of the Northwestern branch of the Semitic family and it is written in the Syriac alphabet, a derivation of the Aramaic alphabet. Syriac was the local accent of Aramaic in Edessa, that evolved under the influence of Church of the East and it has been found as far afield as Hadrians Wall in Ancient Britain, with inscriptions written by Assyrian and Aramean soldiers of the Roman Empire. Modern Syriac/Modern Syriac Aramaic is an occasionally used to refer to the modern Eastern Aramaic languages. In this terminology, Modern Syriac is divided into, Modern Western Syriac Aramaic, note however that these are sometimes excluded from the category of Modern Syriac. The modern varieties are, therefore, not discussed in this article, in 132 BC, the kingdom of Osroene was founded in Edessa and Proto-Syriac evolved in that kingdom. Many Syriac-speakers still look to Edessa as the cradle of their language, there are about eighty extant early Syriac inscriptions, dated to the first three centuries AD. All of these examples of the language are non-Christian. As an official language, Syriac was given a relatively coherent form, style, in the 3rd century, churches in Edessa began to use Syriac as the language of worship. There is evidence that the adoption of Syriac, the language of the Assyrian people, was to effect mission, much literary effort was put into the production of an authoritative translation of the Bible into Syriac, the Peshitta. At the same time, Ephrem the Syrian was producing the most treasured collection of poetry, in 489, many Syriac-speaking Christians living in the eastern reaches of the Roman Empire fled to the Sassanid Empire to escape persecution and growing animosity with Greek-speaking Christians. The Christological differences with the Church of the East led to the bitter Nestorian schism in the Syriac-speaking world, as a result, Syriac developed distinctive western and eastern varieties. Syriac literature is by far the most prodigious of the various Aramaic languages and its corpus covers poetry, prose, theology, liturgy, hymnody, history, philosophy, science, medicine and natural history
21.
Aramaic
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Aramaic is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, the Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires, therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language, each time and place rather has had its own variation. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered, Aram is used as a proper name of several people in the Torah including descendants of Shem, Nahor, and Jacob. Ancient Aram, bordering northern Israel and now called Syria, is considered the epicenter of Aramaic. The language is often considered to have originated within Assyria. Interestingly, the Christian New Testament, for which the constituent texts are written in Koine Greek. The Hellenized Jewish community of Alexandria instead translated Aramaic to the Syrian tongue, a related language, Mlahsô, has recently become extinct. Mandaeans living in the Khuzestan Province of Iran and scattered throughout Iraq and it is quite distinct from any other Aramaic variety. Central Neo-Aramaic consists of Turoyo and the recently extinct Mlahsô, very little remains of Western Aramaic. All these speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic are preserved in liturgical and literary usage. Each dialect of Aramaic has its own pronunciation, and it would not be feasible here to go into all these properties. Aramaic has a palette of 25 to 40 distinct phonemes. The open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel and it usually has a back counterpart, and a front counterpart. There is much correspondence between these vowels between dialects, there is some evidence that Middle Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o sound, the open e and back a are often indicated in writing by the use of the letters א alaph or ה he. The close front vowel is the long i and it has a slightly more open counterpart, the long e, as in the final vowel of café. Both of these have shorter counterparts, which tend to be pronounced more open
22.
Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
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Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and at first ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, the reign of Philip II saw the rise of Macedonia, during which the kingdom rose to control the entire Greek world. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the sarissa pike, Philip II defeated the old powers of Athens and Thebes in the decisive Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, Sparta was kept isolated and was occupied a century later by Antigonus III Doson. Alexander then led a roughly decade-long campaign of conquest against the Achaemenid Empire, in the ensuing wars of Alexander the Great, he overthrew the Achaemenid Empire and conquered a territory that stretched as far as the Indus River. For a brief period, his Macedonian empire was the most powerful in the world – the definitive Hellenistic state, Greek arts and literature flourished in the new conquered lands and advances in philosophy, engineering, and science were spread throughout much of the ancient world. Of particular importance were the contributions of Aristotle, who had been imported as tutor to Alexander, important cities such as Pella, Pydna, and Amphipolis were involved in power struggles for control of the territory. New cities were founded, such as Thessalonica by the usurper Cassander, Macedonias decline began with the Macedonian Wars and the rise of Rome as the leading Mediterranean power. At the end of the Second Macedonian War in 168 BC, a short-lived revival of the monarchy during the Third Macedonian War in 150–148 BC ended with the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia. The name Macedonia comes from the ethnonym Μακεδόνες, which itself is derived from the ancient Greek adjective μακεδνός, meaning tall and it also shares the same root as the noun μάκρος, meaning length in both ancient and modern Greek. The name is believed to have meant either highlanders, the tall ones. Robert S. P. Beekes supports that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. Contradictory legends state that either Perdiccas I of Macedon or Caranus of Macedon were the founders of the Argead dynasty, the kingdom of Macedonia was situated along the Haliacmon and Axius rivers in Lower Macedonia, north of Mount Olympus. Historian Malcolm Errington posits the theory one of the earliest Argead kings must have established Aigai as their capital in the mid-7th century BC. Prior to the 4th century BC, the kingdom covered a region corresponding to the western. Achaemenid Persian hegemony over Macedonia was briefly interrupted by the Ionian Revolt, although Macedonia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy and was never made a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, it was expected to provide troops for the Achaemenid army. Following the Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BC, Alexander I was employed as an Achaemenid diplomat to strike a treaty and alliance with Athens. Soon afterwards the Achaemenid forces were forced to withdraw from mainland Europe, although initially a Persian vassal, Alexander I of Macedon fostered friendly diplomatic relations with his former Greek enemies, the Athenian and Spartan-led coalition of Greek city-states. Two separate wars were fought against Athens between 433 and 431 BC, spurred by an Athenian alliance with a brother and cousin of Perdiccas II who had rebelled against him
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Apamea, Syria
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Apamea, on the right bank of the Orontes River, was an ancient Greek and Roman city. It was the capital of Apamene under the Macedonians, became the capital and Metropolitan Archbishopric of late Roman province Syria Secunda, the site is about 55 km to the northwest of Hama, Syria, overlooking the Ghab valley. After the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great and the subsequent wars between his generals, Apamea fell under the command of the former Macedonian general Seleucus from about 312 BC. From about 300 BC Apamea was fortified and established as a city by Seleucus who named it after his Bactrian wife, the site was enclosed in a loop of the Orontes which, with the lake and marshes, gave it a peninsular form whence its other name of Cherronêsos. It was located at a crossroads for Eastern commerce and became one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. Seleucus also made it a base with 500 elephants. After 142 BC, the pretender Diodotus Tryphon made Apamea the base of his operations, in 64 BC Pompey marched south from his winter quarters probably at or near Antioch and razed the fortress of Apamea when the city was annexed to the Roman Republic. In the revolt of Syria under Q, caecilius Bassus, it held out against Julius Caesar for three years till the arrival of Cassius in 46 BC. On the outbreak of the Jewish War, the inhabitants of Apamea spared the Jews who lived in their midst, much of Apamea was destroyed in the 115 AD earthquake, but was subsequently rebuilt. Destroyed by Chosroes I in the 6th century, it was rebuilt and known in Arabic as Famia or Fâmieh. In the Crusades it was still a flourishing and important place and was occupied by Tancred, both the Jerusalem Targumim considered the city of Shepham to be identical with Apamea. Since Apamea virtually belonged to Rabbinic Palestine, the first-fruits brought by Ariston from that town were accepted for sacrifice in Jerusalem, as a result of the recent civil war in Syria, the ancient city has been damaged and looted by treasure hunters. The Great Colonnade was situated along the avenue of Apamea and ran for nearly 2 kilometres. It was rebuilt after the original, dating from the Seleucid Empire, was devastated along with the rest of Apamea in the 115 AD earthquake, reconstruction started immediately and over the course of the second century the city was completely rebuilt, starting with the Great Colonnade. The colonnade was aligned along the axis, making up the citys cardo maximus. Starting at the north gate, the colonnade ran in an uninterrupted straight line to the south gate. The northern third of the stretch is marked by a monumental votive column that stood opposite the baths. On either side of the street a 6.15 metres wide colonnade ran its full length, the columns were 9 metres high and 0.9 metres in diameter
24.
Strabo
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Strabo was a Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus, Strabos life was characterized by extensive travels. He journeyed to Egypt and Kush, as far west as coastal Tuscany and as far south as Ethiopia in addition to his travels in Asia Minor and the time he spent in Rome. Travel throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, especially for scholarly purposes, was popular during this era and was facilitated by the relative peace enjoyed throughout the reign of Augustus. He moved to Rome in 44 BC, and stayed there, studying and writing, in 29 BC, on his way to Corinth, he visited the island of Gyaros in the Aegean Sea. Around 25 BC, he sailed up the Nile until reaching Philae and it is not known precisely when Strabos Geography was written, though comments within the work itself place the finished version within the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Some place its first drafts around 7 BC, others around 17 or 18 AD, the latest passage to which a date can be assigned is his reference to the death in AD23 of Juba II, king of Maurousia, who is said to have died just recently. He probably worked on the Geography for many years and revised it steadily, on the presumption that recently means within a year, Strabo stopped writing that year or the next, when he died. The first of Strabos major works, Historical Sketches, written while he was in Rome, is completely lost. Strabo studied under several prominent teachers of various specialties throughout his life at different stops along his Mediterranean travels. His first chapter of education took place in Nysa under the master of rhetoric Aristodemus, Strabo was an admirer of Homers poetry, perhaps a consequence of his time spent in Nysa with Aristodemus. At around the age of 21, Strabo moved to Rome, where he studied philosophy with the Peripatetic Xenarchus, despite Xenarchuss Aristotelian leanings, Strabo later gives evidence to have formed his own Stoic inclinations. In Rome, he learned grammar under the rich and famous scholar Tyrannion of Amisus. Although Tyrannion was also a Peripatetic, he was more relevantly a respected authority on geography, the final noteworthy mentor to Strabo was Athenodorus Cananites, a philosopher who had spent his life since 44 BC in Rome forging relationships with the Roman elite. Athenodorus endowed to Strabo three important items, his philosophy, his knowledge, and his contacts, moreover, from his own first-hand experience, Athenodorus provided Strabo with information about regions of the empire which he would not otherwise have known. Strabo is most notable for his work Geographica, which presented a history of people. Although the Geographica was rarely utilized in its antiquity, a multitude of copies survived throughout the Byzantine Empire. It first appeared in Western Europe in Rome as a Latin translation issued around 1469, the first Greek edition was published in 1516 in Venice
25.
Geographica
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The Geographica, or Geography, is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 books, written in Greek by Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman Empire of Greek descent. Work can have begun on it no earlier than 20 BC, a first edition was published in 7 BC followed by a gap, resumption of work and a final edition no later than 23 AD in the last year of Strabos life. Strabo probably worked on his Geography and now missing History concurrently, except for parts of Book 7, the complete work is known. From this description it is clear that by geography Strabo means ancient physical geography and by chorography, the two are combined in this work, which makes a circuit of the earth detailing the physical and political features. Strabo often uses the adjective geōgraphika with reference to the works of others and to geography in general, in the Middle Ages it became the standard name used of his work. The date of Geographica is a topic, perhaps because Strabo worked on it along with his History for most of his adult life. He traveled extensively, undoubtedly gathering notes, and made extended visits to Rome and Alexandria, Strabo visited Rome in 44 BC at age 19 or 20 apparently for purposes of education. He studied under various persons, including Tyrannion, a captive educated Greek and private tutor, cicero says, The geographical work I had planned is a big undertaking. if I take Tyrannions views too. If one presumes that Strabo acquired the motivation for writing geography during his education and he may have been gathering notes but the earliest indication that he must have been preparing them is his extended visit to Alexandria 25–20 BC. In 20 he was 44 years old and his numerous excerpts from the works of his predecessors are most likely to have been noted at the library there. Whether these hypothetical notes first found their way into his history, most of the events of the life of Augustus mentioned by Strabo occurred 31–7 BC with a gap 6 BC –14 AD, which can be interpreted as an interval after first publication in 7 BC. Then in 19 AD a specific reference dates a passage, he said that the Carni, by Drusus 33 years ago, which was 15 BC, dating the passage 19 AD. The latest event mentioned is the death of Juba at no later than 23 AD and these events can be interpreted as a second edition unless he saved all his notes and wrote the book entirely after the age of 80. Strabo is his own best expounder of his principles of composition, In short, useful alike to the statesman and to the public at large – as was my work on History. And so, after I had written my Historical Sketches, I determined to write the present treatise also, for this work is based on the same plan, and is addressed to the same class of readers, and particularly to men of exalted stations in life. For it, too, is a work, in that it deals with the facts about large things only. An outline of the encyclopedia follows, with links to the appropriate Wikipedia article, pages C1 through C67, Loeb Volume I pages 3–249. Some thirty manuscripts of Geographica or parts of it have survived, almost all of medieval copies of copies
26.
Typhon
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Typhon, also Typhoeus, Typhaon or Typhos, was a monstrous giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus, Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. The mythographer Apollodorus adds that Gaia bore Typhon in anger at the gods for their destruction of her offspring the Giants, numerous other sources mention Typhon as being the offspring of Gaia, or simply earth-born, with no mention of Tartarus. However, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Typhon was the child of Hera alone. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise, several sources locate Typhons birth and dwelling place in Cilicia, and in particular the region in the vicinity of the ancient Cilician coastal city of Corycus. The poet Pindar calls Typhon Cilician, and says that Typhon was born in Cilicia and nurtured in the famous Cilician cave, in Aeschylus Prometheus Bound, Typhon is called the dweller of the Cilician caves, and both Apollodorus and the poet Nonnus have Typhon born in Cilicia. The b scholia to Iliad 2.783, preserving a possible Orphic tradition, has Typhon born in Cilicia, Gaia, angry at the destruction of the Giants, slanders Zeus to Hera. So Hera goes to Zeus father Cronus and Cronus gives Hera two eggs smeared with his own semen, telling her to them, and that from them would be born one who would overthrow Zeus. Hera, angry at Zeus, buries the eggs in Cilicia under Arimon, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Typhon as fell and cruel, and neither like gods nor men. Three of Pindars poems have Typhon as hundred-headed, while apparently a fourth gives him only fifty heads, a Chalcidian hydria, depicts Typhon as a winged humanoid from the waist up, with two snake tails below. For Nicander, Typhon was a monster of enormous strength, and strange appearance, with heads, hands, and wings. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, one of his hands reached out to the west and the other to the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons heads. From the thighs downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his very head and his body was all winged, unkempt hair streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks, and fire flashed from his eyes. The most elaborate description of Typhon is found in Nonnuss Dionysiaca, Nonnus makes numerous references to Typhons sepentine nature, giving him a tangled army of snakes, snaky feet, and hair. Nonnus also gives Typhon legions of arms innumerable, and where Nicander had only said that Typhon had many hands, according to Hesiods Theogony, Typhon was joined in love to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon fierce offspring. The Theogony next mentions an ambiguous she, which refer to Echidna. The lyric poet Lasus of Hermione adds the Sphinx, later authors mostly retain these offspring of Typhon by Echidna, while adding others
27.
Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
28.
Dionysiaca
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The Dionysiaca is an ancient epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. The poem is thought to have written in the late 4th and/or early 5th century AD. It has been conjectured that a conversion to Christianity or death caused Nonnus to abandon the poem after some revisions. Editors have pointed out inconsistencies and the difficulties of Book 39 which appears to be a disjointed series of descriptions. Others have attributed these problems to copyists or later editors, the primary models for Nonnus are Homer and the Cyclic poets, Homeric language, metrics, episodes, and descriptive canons are central to the Dionysiaca. The influence of Euripides Bacchae is also significant, as is probably the influence of the other tragedians whose Dionysiac plays do not survive, hesiods poetry, especially the Catalogue of Women, Pindar, and Callimachus can all be seen in the work of Nonnus. Theocritus influence can be detected in Nonnus focus on pastoral themes, finally, Virgil and especially Ovid seem to have influenced Nonnus organization of the poem. Nonnus seems to have been an important influence for the poets of Late Antiquity, especially Musaeus, Colluthus, Christodorus, although it is difficult to determine whether Claudian influenced Nonnus or Nonnus influenced Claudian, the two poets have some striking similarities in their treatments of Persephone. Nonnus remained continuously important in the Byzantine world, and his influence can be found in Genesius, in the Renaissance, Poliziano popularized him to the West, and Goethe admired him in the 18th century. He was also admired by Thomas Love Peacock in 19th-century England, the metrics of Nonnus have been widely admired by scholars for the poets careful handling of dactylic hexameter and innovation. It is especially remarkable that Nonnus was so exacting with meter because the meter of classical poetry was giving way in Nonnus time to stressed meter. These metrical restraints encouraged the creation of new compounds, adjectives, and coined words, the poem is notably varied in its organization. Nonnus does not seem to arrange his poem in a chronology, rather, episodes are arranged by a loose chronological order and by topic. The poem states as its guiding principle poikilia, diversity in narrative, form, the appearance of Proteus, a shapeshifting god, in the proem serves as a metaphor for Nonnus varied style. Nonnus employs the style of the epyllion for many of his narrative sections, such as his treatment of Ampelus in 10–11, Nicaea in 15–16 and these epyllia are inserted into the general narrative framework and are some of the highlights of the poem. Nonnus also employs synkrisis, comparison, throughout his poem, most notably in the comparison of Dionysus, the complexity of organization and the richness of the language have caused the style of the poem to be termed Nonnian Baroque. The size of Nonnus poem and its late date between Imperial and Byzantine literature have caused the Dionysiaca to receive little attention from scholars. But the very correctness of the versification renders it monotonous and his influence on the vocabulary of his successors was likewise very considerable, expressing the 19th-century attitude to this poem as a pretty, artificial, and disorganized collection of stories
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Beqaa Governorate
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Beqaa is a governorate in Lebanon with a population of 750,000 inhabitants. Beqaa Governorate lies in the Beqaa Valley between the Mount Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges and covers an area of 4,429 km², Beqaa Valley is the primary center of Lebanons agriculture. The Litani River and Asi River run through the alley, the temperature ranges from -10 °C to 35 °C throughout the year. Beqaa receives heavy rain and snow during the winter, the villages of Zahlé, Machgara, Niha, Anjar, Qab Elias, Kfar Zabad, Karaon Dam, Chtaura, and Furzul are the areas main tourism destinations. Beqaa Governorate lies on an ancient route between Lebanon, Syria, and the rest of the Arab world, the governorate is known for its wine industry, summer festivals, and its cuisine. The population is 60% Sunni, 30% Christian, 7% Shia, implementation of Baalbek-Hermel began in 2014 with the appointment of its first governor. Zahlé Majdal Anjar Barelias Fourzol Rayak Joub Jannine Al-Bireh, Lebanon Anjar Kherbet Rouha Nabi Ayla Al Karoun Khirbet Qanafar Machgara Deir El Ghazal Qabb Ilyas Qusaya Sawiri Mdoukha
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Mount Lebanon
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Mount Lebanon is a mountain range in Lebanon. It averages above 2,500 m in elevation, the Mount Lebanon range extends along the entire country for about 170 km, parallel to the Mediterranean coast. Their highest peak is Qurnat as Sawda, at 3,088 m, the range receives a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around 4 m deep. Lebanon has historically defined by the mountains, which provided protection for the local population. In Lebanon, changes in scenery are related less to geographical distances than to altitudes, the mountains were known for their oak and pine forests. The last remaining old growth groves of the famous Cedar of Lebanon is on the slopes of Mount Lebanon. The Phoenicians used the forests from Mount Lebanon to build their ship fleet, the Phoenicians and successor rulers consistently replanted and restocked the range, even as late as the 16th century, its forested area was considerable. The name Mount Lebanon traces back to the Semitic root lbn, meaning white, Mount Lebanon is mentioned in the Old Testament several times. King Hiram I of Tyre sent engineers with Cedar wood which was abundant in Mount Lebanon, since then the Cedar species known scientifically as Cedrus libani is often associated with Mount Lebanon. Eusebius records that the Emperor Constantine destroyed a temple of Venus on the summit of Mount Lebanon, in the late 8th century a group known as the Mardaites settled in North Lebanon following the order of the Byzantine Emperor, their mission was to raid Islamic territories in Syria. They merged with the population, refusing to leave after the emperor struck a deal with the Muslim Caliph of Damascus, thus. In the 9th century AD, tribes from the Jabal el Summaq area north of Aleppo in Syria began settling the southern half of the mountain range. These tribes were known as the Tanoukhiyoun and in the 11th century they converted to the Druze faith and this entire area became known as the ‘Jabal ad-Duruz’. In the early 17th century, Emir Fakhreddine the 2nd ascended the throne in the Druze part of the known as the Chouf. In an effort to unify Mount Lebanon, Emir Fakhreddine opened the door to Christians and in particular the Maronite settlement of the Chouf, throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century more and more Maronites settled in the Druze regions of the Mount. The Druze won militarily, but not politically, because European powers intervened on behalf of the Maronites, seeing their authority decline in Mount Lebanon, a few Lebanese Druze began migrating to the new Jabal ad-Duruz in southern Syria. In 1861, the Mount Lebanon autonomous district was established within the Ottoman system, the Khazen crest reflects the familys special closeness to Mount Lebanon, with snowy mountains and a cedar tree depicted. Mount Lebanon also lent its name to two political designations, a province in Ottoman Syria that existed since 1516 and the central Governorate of modern Lebanon
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Anti-Lebanon Mountains
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The Anti-Lebanon Mountains are a southwest-northeast-trending mountain range that forms the majority of the border between Syria and Lebanon. The border is defined along the crest of the range. Most of the lies in Syria. Its Western name Anti-Lebanon comes from the Greek and Latin Antilibanus, derived from its position opposite, to the west of the Anti-Lebanon lie valleys that separate it from Mount Lebanon in central Lebanon, Baalbeks Beqaa Valley in the north and the Hasbani River valley in the south. To the east, in Syria, lies the Eastern Plateau, the Anti-Lebanon range is approximately 150 kilometres in length. To the north, it extends to almost the latitude of the Syrian city of Homs. To the south, the range coalesces with the Golan Heights plateau but includes the highest peaks of Mount Hermon, at 2,814 metres and these peaks are snow-covered for much of the year and are located on the Lebanese-Syrian border. There are various endemic flora found and named after the region, including, Euphorbia antilibanotica, Teucrium antilibanoticum, Valerianella antilibanotica, and Iris antilibanotica
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Litani River
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The Litani River, the classical Leontes, is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, exceeding 140 km in length, the Litani River is the longest river in Lebanon and provides an average annual flow estimated at 920 million cubic meters. The waters of the Litani both originate and flow entirely within the borders of Lebanon and it provides a major source for water supply, irrigation and hydroelectricity both within Southern Lebanon, and the country as a whole. Sections of its lower reaches were under Israeli control during 1978, after heading south parallel to the Syrian border, as the Litani nears northern Israel, the course of the river bends dramatically westward. Near this bend, the Litani comes within five km of the Hasbani River, the portion of the river flowing west is called the Qasimiyeh. For the entire stretch of the Qasimiyeh as it flows into the Mediterranean Sea,10 km north of Tyre, the river is crossed by the ancient Leontes Bridge. In June 1941, the mouth of the river was the site of an attack by British commandos and Australian troops on Vichy French forces that became known as the Battle of the Litani River. Qaraoun, a lake of 11 square km, was created by the Litani River Dam,60 meters high and 1,350 meters in length. A spillway of 6503 meters carries the water to the station where generators produce a maximum of 185 megawatts of electricity. The dam was intended eventually to provide irrigation for 310 km² of farmland in South Lebanon and 80 km² in the Beqaa Valley, the office is at the southern end of the lake on the left side. The lakeside has a hotel and a number of restaurants specializing in fresh trout, the Litani River Authority was formed in 1954 to facilitate the integrated development of the Litani River Basin. Shortly after its formation, the LRA engaged in a hydroelectric development project that tapped the 850 meter head potential between Lake Qaraoun and the Mediterranean. These changes have resulted in the effective separation between the ULB and the Litani lower reaches. The subsequent return to normal conditions has encouraged the LRA to initiate several major water projects from the ULB worth hundreds of millions of US dollars. Ramadan, H. H. Beighley, R. E and Ramamurthy, temperature and precipitation trends in Lebanon’s largest river, the Litani Basin”, American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management,139, pp. 86–95. Ramadan, H. H. Ramamurthy, A. S. and Beighley, inter-annual temperature and precipitation variations over the Litani Basin in response to atmospheric circulation patterns”, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Volume 108, Numbers 3-4, pp. 563–577. Ramadan, H. H. Beighley R. E. modeling Streamflow Trends for a Watershed with Limited Data, A case on the Litani Basin, Lebanon” Hydrological Sciences Journal,57, pp. 1516–1529. Ramadan, H. H. Ramamurthy A. S. sensitivity of the Litani Basin’s runoff in Lebanon to climate change. ”International Journal of Environment and Pollution
33.
Lake Homs Dam
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The Lake Homs Dam, also known as Quatinah Barrage, is a Roman-built dam near the city of Homs, Syria, which is in use to this day. With a capacity of 90 million m³, it is considered the largest Roman reservoir in the Near East, remarkably, the reservoir has suffered very little silting since. The 2 km long and 7 m high gravity dam consists of a Roman concrete core protected by basalt blocks. The slightly pointed curvature of the dam follows the course of a ridge of basalt. In 1938, the level of the dam was raised, increasing the volume of the lake to 200 million m³
34.
Shaizar
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Shaizar is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located northwest of Hama. Nearby localities include, Mahardah, Tremseh, Kafr Hud, Khunayzir, according to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Shaizar had a population of 5,953 in the 2004 census. During the Crusades, the town was a fortress in Syria and it played an important part in the Christian and Muslim politics of the crusades. Located on the Orontes to the northwest of Hama, Shaizar was an ancient town, known as Senzar or Sezar in the Amarna letters. To the Greeks it was known as Sidzara, but the Seleucid dynasty renamed it Larissa and it reverted to its earlier name under the Roman Empire and was known as Sezer under the Byzantine Empire. Shaizar fell to the Arabs in 638 and frequently passed from Arab to Byzantine control and it was lost to the Banu Munqidh in 1081 when Ali ibn Munqidh bought it from the bishop. The Byzantines besieged it numerous times after this but failed to recover it, the Crusaders, on their arrival in this area, rendered the citys name in Latin as Caesarea. It is no longer inhabited today, but the ruins are known as Saijar in modern Arabic, the Munqidhites controlled territory east of Shaizar, across the al-Ansariyah mountains to the Mediterranean coast, from the coastal cities of Latakia in the north to Tortosa in the south. During the First Crusade, the emir assisted the crusaders passing through his land, giving them horses and food and other provisions. In 1111, Tancred, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, and Bertrand of Tripoli besieged Shaizar for two weeks, but returned home when the army of Mawdud of Mosul cut off their access to food and water. Tancred nevertheless built a nearby, Tell ibn Mashar, in order to keep Shaizar under close watch. When Ridwan of Aleppo died in 1113, Shaizar was attacked by his Hashshashin supporters, Shaizar participated in Ilghazis campaign against Antioch in 1119. When Zengi succeeded in Mosul in 1127 and claimed Aleppo as well, in April the Byzantine army besieged Shaizar, but Raymond and Joscelin II of Edessa did not assist the emperor, and Zengi soon arrived to relieve the fortress in May. The emir preferred Byzantine control to Zengid, and offered to recognize John as his overlord, neither John or Zengi ever really enforced their authority there and Shaizar remained independent. The emirate lasted until the earthquake of 1157, during which the citadel collapsed, killing almost the entire family. The only survivors out of the family were the wife of emir, and the emirs nephew Usamah. The Hashshashin then took control of the ruins, and they were defeated by the crusaders in 1158, Nur ad-Din Zangi then incorporated the remains into his territory and rebuilt the city. Shaizar was destroyed again by an earthquake in 1170 and the remnants were taken by Saladin in 1174 and they were rebuilt again, but in 1241 the city was sacked by the Khwarezmians
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Al-Ghab Plain
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The Ghab Plain is a fertile depression lying mainly in the Al-Suqaylabiyah District in northwest Syria, near Muhradah, around 25 km north-west of Hama. The valley was flooded for centuries by the waters of the Orontes River, the Ghab project, beginning in the 1950s, drained the valley to make it habitable, arable land, providing an extra 41,000 hectares of irrigated farmland. The valley separates the mountains in the west from the Zawiyah mountain range. It is 63 kilometres long and 12.1 kilometres wide, before its drainage, the Ghab was the center of the catfish fisheries of the Orontes valley. The project started in 1953 and is considered one of the most important hydraulic projects in northern Syria, owing to a slight slope in the Orontes in the area of al-Asharinah, the river did not provide enough water to the surrounding territories. The project drained the plain where the River Orontes flowed, the plain was entirely drained in 1968 and provided 11,000 families with lands. The Ghab project made large areas suitable for agriculture, and new systems were employed. The system included barrages, canal networks for irrigation and canal networks for drainage, large barrages were built in Mahardah, Zayzun, Qarqur and other villages. The dam at Mahardah, built in 1961, is 40 metres high, other advantages of the Ghab project were the improvements in the systems of communication through the building of road and rail networks, previously not possible due to the swamps. In addition, malaria decreased because there was no stagnant water. The World Bank Policy for Projects on International Waterways, An Historical and Legal Analysis, World Bank Publications, ISBN 978-0-8213-7953-0
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Norias of Hama
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The Norias of Hama are a number of norias along the Orontes River in the city of Hama, Syria. Only seventeen of the original norias remain and they are mostly unused now and serve an aesthetic purpose. They were called the most splendid norias ever constructed, the norias of Hama were submitted as a tentative World Heritage Site by the Syrian Arab Republic in June 1999. The earliest evidence for norias in Hama suggests they were developed during the Byzantine era, however, a mosaic found at Apamea dating to 469 AD pictures a noria very similar to those at Hama, suggesting they may have earlier origins. Now only 17 norias remain, unused, a noria performs the function of moving water from a lower elevation to a higher elevation. In this it is similar to the saqiya and other pumps like the Persian wheel, noria is similar to the modern hydraulic ram, which also uses the power of flowing water to pump some of the water out of the river. Unlike the water found in mills, a noria does not provide mechanical power to any other process. A few historical norias were hybrids, consisting of waterwheels assisted secondarily by animal power, a noria can raise water to a level thats less than its full height. The Hama noria is the largest in the world, with a diameter of about 20 meters, the origin of this device is most likely is the Greek Byzantium. Many credible references can be found in medieval texts, philo of Byzantium describes in Pneumatica a structure with similar functions. Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century B. C. tried a to make a distinction between a bucket-chain and wheel for raising water. La Boda, Sharon, Watson, Noelle, Schellinger, Paul, International Dictionary of Historic Places, Middle East and Africa, Routledge, the Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-46773-X. Sound and video of Norias on Sound Tourism site
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Syrian Coastal Mountain Range
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The Coastal Mountain Range is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north-south, parallel to the coastal plain. The mountains have a width of 32 kilometres, and their average peak elevation is just over 1,200 meters with the highest peak, Nabi Yunis, reaching 1,562 metres. In the north the average height declines to 900 metres, classically, this range was known as the Bargylus, a name mentioned by Pliny the elder. Under the Hashashins were known as the Jabal Bahra, the western slopes catch moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean Sea and are thus more fertile and more heavily populated than the eastern slopes. Between 1920 and 1936, the formed parts of the eastern border of the Alawite State within the French Mandate for Syria
38.
Afrin River
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The Afrin River (Arabic, نهر عفرين Nahr ʻIfrīn, is a tributary of the Orontes River in Turkey and Syria. It rises in the Kartal Mountains in Gaziantep Province, Turkey, flows south through the city of Afrin in Syria and it joins the Karasu at the site of the former Lake Amik, and its waters flow to the Orontes by a canal. The total length of the river is 131 kilometres, of which 54 kilometres is in Syria. About 250,000,000 cubic metres of the flow of the river comes from the Hatay Province of Turkey. The river is impounded by the Afrin Dam to the north of the city of Afrin, the Afrin was known as Apre to the Assyrians, Oinoparas in the Seleucid era, and as Ufrenus in the Roman era. Abul-Fida mentions it as Nahr Ifrîn
39.
Vale of Tempe
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The Vale of Tempe is a gorge in the Tempi municipality of northern Thessaly, Greece, located between Olympus to the north and Ossa to the south. The valley is 10 kilometers long and as narrow as 25 meters in places, with cliffs nearly 500 meters high, in ancient times, it was celebrated by Greek poets as a favorite haunt of Apollo and the Muses. On the right bank of the Pineios sat a temple to Apollo, the Tempe Pass is a strategic pass in Greece since it is the main route from Larisa through the mountains to the coast. Though it can be bypassed via the Sarantoporo Pass, the route takes longer. Because of this it has been the scene of battles throughout history. In 480 BC,10,000 Athenians and Spartans gathered at Tempe to stop Xerxess invasion. However, once there, they were warned by Alexander I of Macedon that the vale could be bypassed and that the army of Xerxes was overwhelmingly large, accordingly, the Greeks retreated. The Vale of Tempe was home for a time to Aristaeus, son of Apollo and Cyrene, and it was here that he chased Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, in the thirteenth century AD a church dedicated to Aghia Paraskevi was erected in the valley. During the Third Macedonian War in 169 BC the Romans broke through Perseus of Macedons defences here, during the revolution of Andriskos in 148 BC the valley was the site of another conflict. There were other battles fought there during the raids that mark the end of the Roman era in Greece and in Byzantine. Tempe extended about five miles in length but varied in the dimensions of its breadth so as to be in some places scarce one acre, all vallies that are pleasant, either for their situation or the mildness of their climate, are called Tempe by the poets. Tempe has become notorious for the condition of the road passing through it. On October 4,1999 a bus carried some PAOK fans who returned from a match in Athens crashed with a truck, the result was 7 deaths,6 PAOK fans and the bus driver. On December 16,2009, a rockfall occurred. The road was closed, and during the inspection the next day a massive rockslide occurred. The road remained closed until May 2010 while rocks were scaled off the cliff faces above the road, and rockfall protection fences were built. The US city of Tempe, Arizona, and the Sydney suburb of Tempe are two named after it, as is a farm in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, with nearby farms named Olympus. Th Vale of Tempe Road tracing a small valley in Penang, Malaysia, Catullus refers to Tempe in Catullus 64 lines 285-286
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orontes". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
