As-Safa (, ), also known as Tulul al-Safa (, ), Arabic for ''Al-Safa hills'', is a hilly region which lies in southern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, north-east of

Jabal al-Druze Jabal al-Druze (), is an elevated volcanic region in the Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria. Most of the inhabitants of this region are Druze, and there are also significant Christian communities. Safaitic inscriptions were first found in ...

volcanic plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus and pyroclastic plateaus. Lava plateau Lava plateaus are formed by highly fluid basaltic lava during numerous successive eruptions thro ...

. It consists of a basaltic lava field of volcanic origin, covering an area of 220 square kilometres, and contains at least 38 cinder cones. This volcanic field lies within the northern part of the massive alkaline Harrat Ash Shamah

volcanic field A volcanic field is an area of Earth's Earth's crust, crust that is prone to localized volcano, volcanic activity. The type and number of volcanoes required to be called a "field" is not well-defined. Volcanic fields usually consist of clusters ...

that extends from southern Syria, through eastern

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. The region is extremely scarce in water.

Volcanic activities

The field contains numerous vents which have been active during the

Holocene Epoch The Holocene () is the current geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Qu ...

(12,000 years ago). A boiling

lava lake Lava lakes are large volumes of molten lava, usually basaltic, contained in a volcanic vent, crater, or broad depression. The term is used to describe both lava lakes that are wholly or partly molten and those that are solidified (sometim ...

was observed in the Es Safa volcanic area in the middle of the 19th century (see Erta Ale in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Puʻu ʻŌʻō Puu Ōō (also spelled Pu‘u‘ō‘ō, and often written Puu Oo, , ) is a volcanic cone on the eastern rift zone of Kīlauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. The eruption that created Puu Ōō began on January 3, 1983, and continued nearly co ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for reference).

Demography

The region was frequently used by the

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

through history as a refuge in the years of war. The whole region currently lies within

As-Suwayda Governorate As-Suwayda or Al-Suwayda Governorate () is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is the southernmost governorate, covering an area of 5,550 km², and is part of the historic Hawran region. The capital and largest city of ...

, as the governorate's borders run along the region's boundaries. Only roaming

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

visit it occasionally, in addition to some archaeologists.

Safaitic Safaitic ( ''Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah'') is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the Arabs in southern Syria and northern Jordan in the Harrat al-Sham, Ḥarrah region, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and Ancient N ...

inscriptions were first discovered in this area in 1857, and were named after the region.

Syrian civil war

In the Syrian civil war, al-Safa became the last pocket of

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

in the As-Suwayda Governorate and the Rif-Damasiq Governorate. It was surrounded by the Syrian Army in the As-Suwayda offensive. The area was captured on 17 November 2018.

List of volcanic cones in Es Safa

* Tell el Aqzass (''Tell el Aqzass'') 889 m. * Tell ed Ders (''Tell ed Ders'') 878 m. * Jabal Rghēli (''Jabal Rgheli'') 874 m. * Tell Darayir Šimāli (''Tell Darayer Shimali'') 844 m. * Tell Um Ħwār (''Tell Um Hwar'') 818 m. * Tell Um el Janbrīs (''Tell Um el Janbris'') 808 m. * Tell Darayir Qebli (''Tell Darayir Qebli'') 803 m. * Tell ‘Ali (''Tell Ali'') 770 m. * Tell al Khēl (''Tell el Kheil'') 765 m. * Tell Eş Şafa (''Tell Es Safa'') 739m. * Tell Ţarrān (''Tell Tarran'') 731 m. * Jabal Sīs (''Jabal Sees'') 692 m. * Tell Zqēţa (''Tell Zqeita'') 670 m. * Jabal el Jarīn (''Jabal el Jareen'') 657 m. * Jabal Abū Ghanem (''Jabal Abu Ghanem'') 632 m.

References

External links

* Mountains of Syria Volcanic fields Es Safa {{Syria-geo-stub