Tartus Governorate, also transliterated as Tartous Governorate ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ṭarṭūs''), is one of the 14

governorates A governorate or governate is an administrative division headed by a governor. As English-speaking nations tend to call regions administered by governors either states or provinces, the term ''governorate'' is typically used to calque divisions o ...

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 ...

. It is situated in western Syria, bordering

Latakia Governorate Latakia Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat al-Lādhiqīyah''), also transliterated as Ladhakia, is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay Province to the no ...

to the north,

Homs Homs ( ; ), known in pre-Islamic times as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level, above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is ...

and

Hama Governorate Hama Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates to the north, Raqqa Gove ...

s to the east,

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

to the south, and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

to the west. It is one of the few governorates in Syria that has an

Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...

majority. Sources list the area as 1,890 km² or 1,892 km², with its capital being

Tartus Tartus ( / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarṭūs''; known in the County of Tripoli as Tortosa and also transliterated from French language, French Tartous) is a major port city on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. It is the second largest port city in Syria (af ...

History

The present day Tartus Governorate was part of the

Alawite State The Alawite State (, '; ), initially named the Territory of the Alawites ()—after the locally-dominant Alawites—from its inception until its integration to the Syrian Federation in 1922, was a French mandate territory on the coast of pre ...

, which existed from 1920 to 1936.Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley. "Syria and Lebanon Under French Mandate." London: Oxford University Press, 1958. In 1972, the Ba'athist administration had established Tartus Governorate, effectively detaching it from

Archeological sites

Al-Kahf Castle Al-Kahf Castle or the Castle of the Cave () is a medieval Nizari Isma'ili castle located around southeast of Margat, in the al-Ansariyah mountains in northwest Syria. History The castle was built around 1120 by Saif al-Mulk ibn Amrun, and was ...

– Isma'ili castle * Hosn Sulaiman * Aleika Castle – Isma'ili castle *

Amrit Amrit (), the classical antiquity, classical Marathus (, ''Marathos''), was a Phoenicians, Phoenician port located near present-day Tartus in Syria. Founded in the third millenniumBC, Marat (, ) was the northernmost important city of ancient Ph ...

– Phoenician city * Chastel Rouge (Qal’at Yahmur) – Crusader castle *

Hosn Suleiman Hosn Suleiman (), a Syrian village, is found on the slope of the Al-Nabi Saleh mountain () at an altitude 950 m, at a distance of 20 km from Duraykish and 56 km from Tartous. History Hosn Suleiman was known as Baetocaece which was famou ...

* Margat – Crusader castle * Citadel of Arwad *

Tell Kazel Tell Kazel () is an oval-shaped tell that measures at its base, narrowing to at its top. It is located in the Safita district of the Tartus Governorate in Syria in the north of the Akkar plain on the north of the al-Abrash River approximately ...

– Bronze age site (possibly the ancient city of Sumur) * Carne – Phoenician city *

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 com ...

* Citadel of Tartus *

Geography

Tartus comprises roughly half of Syria's Mediterranean coastline; offshore lie five small

islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

, the largest of which is

Arwad Arwad (; ), the classical antiquity, classical Aradus, is a town in Syria on an eponymous List of islands of Syria, island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative center of the Arwad nahiyah, Subdistrict (''nahiyah''), of which it is ...

. Inland the terrain is mountainous, comprising a section of the

Syrian Coastal Mountain Range The Coastal Mountain Range (, ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Jabal al-Ansariya, Jabal an-Nusayria or Jabal al-`Alawīyin (Ansari, Nusayri or Alawi Mountains) is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, ...

(Nusayriyah Mountains).Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (2005
"Country Profile: Syria"
page 5 The

Nahr al-Kabir The Nahr al-Kabir, also known in Syria as al-Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi (, in contrast with the Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali) or in Lebanon simply as the Kebir, is a river in Syria and Lebanon flowing into the Mediterranean Sea at Arida. The river ...

river forms the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

with Lebanon to the south.

Settlements

is the regional capital; other major settlements include Al-Hamidiyah, Al Qadmus, Al-Sawda, Ayn ash Shams,

Baniyas Baniyas ( ') is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastal city in Tartous Governorate, western Syria, located south of Latakia and north of Tartous. It is known for its citrus fruit orchards and its export of wood. North of the city is an B ...

, Qusaybah and

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 ...

Districts

The governorate is divided into five

districts A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...

(

manatiq Minṭaqah ( ; plural ) is a term used for a first-level administrative division in Saudi Arabia and Chad and for a second-level administrative division in several other Arab countries. It is often translated as ''region'' or ''district'', but th ...

). The districts are further divided into 27 sub-districts ( nawahi): *

Tartus District Tartus District () is a district of the Tartus Governorate in northwestern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Tartus Tartus ( / ALA-LC: ''Ṭarṭūs''; known in the County of Tripoli as Tortosa and also transliterated from French ...

(7 sub-districts) ** Tartus Subdistrict ** Arwad Subdistrict ** Al-Hamidiyah Subdistrict ** Khirbet al-Maazah Subdistrict ** Al-Sawda Subdistrict ** Al-Karimah Subdistrict ** Al-Safsafah Subdistrict * Baniyas District (7 sub-districts) ** Baniyas Subdistrict ** Al-Rawda Subdistrict ** Al-Annazah Subdistrict ** Al-Qadmus Subdistrict ** Hammam Wasel Subdistrict ** Al-Tawahin Subdistrict ** Talin Subdistrict * Duraykish District (4 sub-districts) ** Duraykish Subdistrict ** Junaynet Ruslan Subdistrict ** Hamin Subdistrict ** Dweir Ruslan Subdistrict *

Safita District Safita District () is a Districts of Syria, district of the Tartus Governorate in northwestern Syria. Administrative centre is the city of Safita. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 129,632. Sub-districts The district of Safita ...

(6 sub-districts) ** Safita Subdistrict ** Mashta al-Helu Subdistrict ** Al-Bariqiyah Subdistrict ** Sebei Subdistrict ** Al-Sisiniyah Subdistrict ** Ras al-Khashufah Subdistrict *

Al-Shaykh Badr District Al-Shaykh Badr District () is a district of the Tartus Governorate in northwestern Syria. Administrative centre is the town of al-Shaykh Badr Al-Shaykh Badr (, also transliterated ''Sheikh Bader'') is a city in western Syria, administratively p ...

(3 sub-districts) ** Al-Shaykh Badr Subdistrict ** Brummanet al-Mashayekh Subdistrict ** Al-Qamsiyah Subdistrict

Demographics

As per the 2004 Syrian census the population was 701,400. A 2011

UNOCHA The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

estimate put the population at 797,000, an estimate preceding the Syrian Civil War which caused a large population decline and socioeconomic devastation. The estimated population of 797,000 represented roughly 4% of Syria's population at the time. The population was almost entirely ethnic

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

; these were

s at 69%, 18%

Sunni Muslim Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

s, 7%

Ismaili Muslim Ismailism () is a branch of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept M ...

s, and 6% were

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

(mostly

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

). There was a small

Cretan Greek Cretan Greek, or the Cretan dialect (, ), is a variety of Modern Greek spoken in Crete and by the Cretan diaspora. Geographic distribution The Cretan dialect is spoken by the majority of the Cretan Greeks on the island of Crete, as well as by ...

community concentrated in Al-Hamidiyah, the descendants of refugees who fled the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.Greek-Speaking Enclaves of Lebanon and Syria
by Roula Tsokalidou. Proceedings ''II Simposio Internacional Bilingüismo''. Retrieved 4 December 2006

Gallery

File:Tartus_governorate_-_physical_map.png, Map of Tartus governorate File:Safita overview.jpg, Safita File:Kaf Aljaa.jpg, Mountains near Kaff al-Jaa File:Marqab2.jpg, Margat Castle File:Al-Kafroun (Arabic الكفرون).jpg, Al Kafrun File:Arwad Castle 阿瓦德古堡 - panoramio.jpg, Arwad Castle

References

External links

etartus
The First Complete website for Tartus news and services {{Authority control Governorates of Syria