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Araima
Areimeh () is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus District of the Tartus Governorate. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (Syria), Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Areimeh had a population of 507 in the 2004 census. It is the site of the medieval fortress of Arima. Fortress Description Arima is southeast of Tartus. It is situated on an oval hilltop, above sea level, in the northern Akkar Plain, below the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, Jabal Ansariyah mountains. The hill slopes steeply on its north and south to the tributaries of the Nahr al-Abrash river. The fortress is currently in a ruined state. From its peak it oversees the fortresses of Chastel Blanc and Gibelacar (Hisn Akkar). It covers a length of . It consists of two courtyards and redoubt, all three components separated from each other ditches. The redoubt is an enclosure with two towers on its sides, the larger tower positioned over the entrance to the fortress. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Location Map
In geography, location or place is used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous boundary, relying more on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry. A populated place is called a ''Human settlement, settlement''. Types Locality A suburb, locality, human settlement, settlement, or populated place is likely to have a well-defined name but a boundary that is not well defined, but rather varies by context. London, for instance, has a legal boundary, but this is unlikely to completely match with general usage. An area within a town, such as Covent Garden in London, also almost always has some ambiguity as to its extent. In geography, location is considered to be more precise than "place". Relative location A relative location, or situation, is described as a displacement from another si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homs Gap
The Homs Gap () (also called the Akkar Gap and known in Arabic as al-Buqay'a) is a relatively flat passage in the Orontes River Valley of southern Syria. Nicknamed the "gateway to Syria," the gap separates the An-Nusayriyah Mountains and Jabal Zawiya from the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains. The small Nahr al-Kabir river runs down the Gap to the Syrian coast into the Mediterranean Sea at Arida. For hundreds of years, traders and invaders have found the Homs Gap an important route from the coast to the country's interior and to other parts of Asia because it "provides the easiest access between the Mediterranean coast and the Syrian interior." The gap is also the only large crossing open year-round across the mountain ranges. Today, the highway and railroad in Homs to the Lebanese port of Tripoli run through the gap. A pipeline carrying oil also runs through the gap. In addition, the Krak des Chevaliers castle is in the Homs Gap. The castle was built in 1031 AD to guard t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamluk Sultanate
The Mamluk Sultanate (), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz from the mid-13th to early 16th centuries, with Cairo as its capital. It was ruled by a military caste of mamluks (freed slave soldiers) headed by a sultan. The sultanate was established with the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt in 1250 and was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Mamluk history is generally divided into the Turkic or Bahri period (1250–1382) and the Circassian or Burji period (1382–1517), called after the predominant ethnicity or corps of the ruling Mamluks during these respective eras. The first rulers of the sultanate hailed from the mamluk regiments of the Ayyubid sultan as-Salih Ayyub (), usurping power from his successor in 1250. The Mamluks under Sultan Qutuz and Baybars routed the Mongols in 1260, halting their southward expansion. They then conquered or gained suzerainty over the Ayyubids' Syrian p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, he spearheaded the Muslim military effort against the Crusader states in the Levant. At the height of his power, the Ayyubid realm spanned Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen, and Nubia. Alongside his uncle Shirkuh, a Kurdish mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, Saladin was sent to Fatimid Egypt in 1164, on the orders of the Zengid ruler Nur ad-Din. With their original purpose being to help restore Shawar as the vizier to the teenage Fatimid caliph al-Adid, a power struggle ensued between Shirkuh and Shawar after the latter was reinstated. Saladin, meanwhile, climbed the ranks of the Fatimid government by virtue of his military successes against Crusader assaults and his personal closeness to al-Adid. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 1118 to defend pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, with their headquarters located there on the Temple Mount, and existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages. Officially endorsed by the Catholic Church by such decrees as the papal bull ''Omne datum optimum'' of Pope Innocent II, the Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. The Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantle (monastic vesture), mantles with a red Christian cross, cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. They were prominent in Christian finance; non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Safita
Safita ( '; , ''Sōpūte'') is a city in the Tartus Governorate, western Syria, located to the southeast of Tartus and to the northwest of Krak des Chevaliers. It is situated on the tops of three hills and the valleys between them, in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Safita had a population of 20,301 in the 2004 census. It has a religiously mixed population of mostly Greek Orthodox Christians and Alawites. The Crusader-built fortress of Chastel Blanc in Safita enabled the city to historically dominate the surrounding region. Safita served as the center of a large rural district throughout Ottoman rule (1517–1918). Its influence receded with the administrative rise and economic development of the nearby port town of Tartus and the dimunition of its jurisdiction beginning under French Mandatory rule (1923–1946) and continuing post-Syrian independence. Safita shares close economic ties with Tartus, as well as havi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chastel Blanc
Chastel Blanc (, Burj Safita or Safita Tower) is a medieval structure in Safita, western Syria. It was built by the Knights Templar during the Crusades upon prior fortifications. Located on the middle hill of Safita's three hills, it offers a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, and was a major part of the network of Crusader fortifications in the area. From the roof, a view ranging see from the Mediterranean Sea to the snow-covered mountains of Lebanon, and County of Tripoli, is offered. From Chastel Blanc it would have been possible to see the Templar strongholds at Tartus and Ruad Island to the northwest, Chastel Rouge on the coastline to the southwest, Akkar to the south, and Krak des Chevaliers (the headquarters of the Syrian Knights Hospitallers) to the southeast. History The region was initially controlled by the Crusaders by 1110, and was mentioned the first time in an Arab chronicle in 1112. The Knights Templar built a dungeon after 1117, then they possesse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nur Al-Din Zengi
Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. 'Light of the Faith' in Arabic), was a Turkoman member of the Zengid dynasty, who ruled the Syrian province () of the Seljuk Empire. He reigned from 1146 to 1174. He is regarded as an important figure of the Second Crusade. War against Crusaders Born in February 1118, Nur ad-Din was the second son of Imad al-Din Zengi, the Turcoman ''atabeg'' of Aleppo and Mosul, who was a devoted enemy of the crusader presence in Syria. After the assassination of his father in 1146, Nur ad-Din and his older brother Saif ad-Din Ghazi I divided the kingdom between themselves, with Nur ad-Din governing Aleppo and Saif ad-Din Ghazi establishing himself in Mosul. The border between the two new kingdoms was formed by the Khabur River. Almost as soon as he began his rule, Nur ad-Din attacked the Principality of Antioch, seizing several castles in the north of Syria, while at the same time he defeat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tripoli, Lebanon
Tripoli ( ; , , ; , ; see #Names, below) is the largest and most important city in North Lebanon, northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in the country. Situated north of the capital Beirut, it is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District, Lebanon, Tripoli District. Tripoli overlooks the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and it is the northernmost seaport in Lebanon. The city is predominantly inhabited by Lebanese Sunni Muslims, Sunni Muslims, with smaller populations of Alawites in Lebanon, Alawites and Christianity in Lebanon, Christians, including Lebanese Maronite Christians, Maronites and Armenians in Lebanon, Armenians among others. The history of Tripoli dates back at least to the 14th century BC. It was called Athar by the Phoenicians, and later ''Tripolis'' by the Greeks, Greek settlers, whence the modern Arabic name ''Ṭarābulus'' derives. In the Arab world, Tripoli has been historically known as (), to distinguish it from Tripoli, Libya, its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesarea Maritima
Caesarea () also Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Palaestinae or Caesarea Stratonis, was an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Judaea (Roman province), Roman Judaea, Syria Palaestina and Palaestina Prima, successively, for a period of 650 years and a major intellectual hub of the Mediterranean. Today, the site is part of the Caesarea National Park, on the western edge of the Sharon plain in Israel. The site was first settled in the 4th century BCE as a Phoenicia, Phoenician colony and trading village known as Abdashtart I, Straton's Tower after the ruler of Sidon. It was enlarged in the 1st century BCE under Hasmonean dynasty, Hasmonean rule, becoming a Jewish village; and in 63 BCE, when the Roman Republic annexed the region, it was declared an autonomous city. It was then significantly enlarged in the Roman period by the Judaea (Roman province), Judaean client King Herod the Great, who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfonso Jordan
Alfonso Jordan, also spelled Alfons Jordan or Alphonse Jourdain (1103–1148), was the Count of Tripoli (1105–09), Count of Rouergue (1109–48) and Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne (1112–48). Life Alfonso was the son of Raymond IV of Toulouse by his third wife, Elvira of Castile. He was born in the castle of Mont Pèlerin in Tripoli while his father was on the First Crusade. He was given the name "Jourdain" after being baptised in the Jordan River. Alfonso's father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, William Jordan, Count of Cerdagne, until he was five. He was then taken to Europe, where his half-brother Bertrand had given him the county of Rouergue. Upon Bertrand's death in 1112, Alfonso succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence. In 1114, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, who claimed Toulouse by right of his wife Philippa, daughter of Count William IV, invaded the county ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
