الفصل الثاني في ربوع الجنوب السوري ١_a .. كتاب في ربوع سورية

Chapter II

in the south of Syria

We stop in the south of Syria at the governorates of Daraa and As-Suwayda, which together form - in addition to the Golan Heights - what was formerly known as the Hauran region. And if Hauran today refers to the province of Daraa, then it previously included what we referred to. Today, the historic Hauran is divided into three regions: the Golan region, the Hauran region (Daraa), and the Jabal al-Arab region, in addition to the northern part of Jordan.

And southern Syria, in which we wander and show its natural and human characteristics, occupies an area estimated at about 11,600 km2 (632% of the total area of ​​Syria) distributed between the governorates of As-Suwayda (7,000 km2) and Daraa (4,600 km2). The region includes about one million people, about 8% of the population of (Syria), two-thirds of whom are Daraa Governorate. that's almost in

It should be noted that the southern political boundary between Syria and Jordan is not consistent with the natural and human boundary of this region as one of the minor regions into which the Levant is divided, because northern Jordan is part of the Hauran region.

General geographical features of southern Syria:

The nature of southern Syria varies remarkably from climate, topography, vegetation and water - Figure (9) -, but it is less diverse than other Syrian regions. The surface aspects of the region are characterized by their lack of terraforming, and this is due to the fact that the region generally consists of two terrain units: the Horan depression or the plain.
Hauran, which appears in the form of an elongated gutter confined between the Golan Heights in the west and Jabal al-Arab in the east, whose axis coincides with the extension of the old Damascus-Daraa road, and its slope north-south is gentle, after which it turns towards the west, following the Syrian-Jordanian borders, ending in Lake Tiberias. The average height of the Hauran Plain ranges between 600-700 m. On its western and eastern outskirts, many hills rise between 100 and 300 meters above its level, and they are like volcanic cones. Al-Shaar massif (1137 m), which represents the highest point in the Hauran region, Tell Al-Hara (1094 m), Tell Al-Sin (628 m), and Tell Al-Jabiya (718 m).

And Jabal Al-Arab or Jabal Hauran as it was previously known, and the best names for what this mountain was known by is Jabal Al-Rayyan, which appears in the form of an oval dome with a northwest-southeast extension, about 75 km long and about 50 km wide. Its western fronts, which gradually merge with the Hauran Plain, enter the lands of Daraa Governorate, while its eastern slopes end with the lands of Al-Hammad, as Jabal Al-Arab occupies only about two-thirds of its western area from Suwayda Governorate. The average height of the mountain is about 1300 m above sea level, and the area known as the back of the mountain occupies its middle, which is located to the southeast of As-Suwayda. Many volcanic cones protrude above the mountain, as in the well-known Tell Shehan (1138 m), located west of the Damascus-Suwayda road, about 1 km before reaching the city of Shahba, and Tell Dunoun north of Shaqqa (1172 m), Tell Mahjar (928 m) south of Magadil, and Tell Qalib (1698 m). ) to the north of Al-Kafr, and Tal Suleiman (1703 m) to the south of Tal Al-Ghaina, and Tal Saji (1535 m) southeast of Sahwa Al-Khader, and Tal. imprisonment
(1420 m) southeast of Salkhad, and Tell Mujd’a (1470 m) east of Meleh.

The southern region in general has volcanic rocks dating back to the fourth geological time, and its thickness in Jabal al-Arab reaches about 1500 m, because Jabal al-Arab is originally a structural valley, while its thickness is less than 100 m in Hauran. The region of low elevation volcanic membranes that forms the northeastern part of the Hauran Plain and northwest of Jabal al-Arab is known as the rugged volcanic lajat region, while the volcanic region located east and northeast of Jabal al-Arab is known as the al-Safa region, which also contains many volcanic hills, and it extends east beyond the borders of the province. As-Suwayda. And due to the fact that the basalt of the Hauran Plain is older than the basalt of Jabal Al-Arab, the land of As-Suwayda governorate, especially the eastern (Safa) and northern (Al-Lajat) parts of it, is rich in basalt stones.

The climate in the Hauran Plain differs from that in its mountains and margins, although the general features are one of warmth, summer drought, coldness and winter rains. However, the location of Jabal al-Arab east of the Hauran Plain made it like a cold climatic island within warmer lowlands that surround it from all directions. Temperatures in Jabal Al-Arab are lower than in the Hauran Plain. In the summer, the weather in Jabal al-Arab is more moderate than it is in the Hauran Plain (the average temperature of July is 23.5 C in As-Suwayda, 23.3 C in Salkhad, 27 C in Daraa and 255 C in Tell Shihab), but in the winter the weather is more Harshness in Jabal Al-Arab due to the extremely low temperature in it (Sweida 6.9 C in January, Ain Al-Arab South 204 C, Salkhad M Daraa 9 C, and Tell Shihab 84 C. If the absolute maximum temperature reaches 43 C in the Hauran Plain, Al-Sanamayn is 42 C, sow 42.5 C. , hill he