الفصل الرابع في ربوع محافظة حماه ١_a .. كتاب في ربوع سورية

the fourth chapter

in the province of Hama

The diversity of natural appearances and the contrast in social patterns are among the distinguishing features of Hama Governorate. The province of Hama, which occupies an important location in central Syria, has known man throughout its territory since ancient times. In fact, it can be said that it was one of the first areas of residence in Syria and was inhabited by different peoples and nations. For those monuments and monuments, wherever we go south - north with the Orontes or west - east from the eastern slopes of the coastal mountains to the Balaas Mountains and the easternmost part of the province, we read the history of the province and enjoy aspects of the beauty of its nature. The vast expanse of the lands of the province of Hama, the diversity of its surface appearances, the abundance of its water in the past, and the good investment of that water in agriculture, which is reflected in the large number of Roman water canals in the central and eastern parts of the province, and the suitability of its climate in the past for different forms of life. Clear and immortal fingerprints indicate it and reflect its successive civilizational development through the ages and the palaces of Syria, the ruins of Andrin, and the many ruins in eastern Salamiyah. Only evidence of the reconstruction of the province since ancient times. in

General characteristics:

Hama governorate occupies the central part of Syria, and is located to the north of the lands of Homs governorate, and to the east of the upper part of the coastal mountain range.
With the exception of 190 km, its average north-south extension is about 60 km, which is the prominence of the northern forest.

The population of Hama governorate occupies an area of ​​8880 km2 (about 10% of the area of ​​Syria). Its current population is about one million (8) Syrians, while the results of the census for the month of September 1981 indicated a number of 747,578 people. The governorate is divided into five administrative regions: the governorate center, the Salamiyah region, the Masyaf region, the Al-Ghab region, and the region:

Mharda.

How much is the province of Hama worth visiting and getting to know its historical landmarks, natural features and tourist sites. There are no more than the historical cities, some of which are still alive in terms of their urbanized, successive, developed location, buildings and housing. What are the most ancient palaces (Al-Azem Palace in Hama, Asrya Palace, Ibn (Wardan) Palace and castles and fortresses (Hama Castle, Shaizar Castle, Al-Madiq Castle, Masyaf Castle, Berzieh Castle, Abu Qubeis Castle, Baarin Castle, Jarjarah Tower, Al-Rusafa Castle, Shmemis Castle, Al-Qaher Castle, Al-Qahir Castle? Al-Rahiba, and the usury castle (which is still sitting in its locations until now, some of it preserved its condition without a clear collapse in it, and some of it got the habits of time, so I ate from it what I ate and kept from it what indicates it and indicates its greatness.

The difference in altitude in the land of the province has an important role in giving distinctive characteristics to some of them, because of the effect of altitude on the prevailing climate because it reduces the temperature, raises the atmospheric humidity and increases precipitation, and thus gives the land greenery and beauty, and this is what we see clearly in the slopes.
As is the case in the eastern fronts of the coastal mountains overlooking the plains of al-Ghab and al-Asharna in part and connected to the Masyaf plateau and extending to the east in the two hills of Harbfsah and Kafr Bahm. This elevated area, rich in natural plants and water, and moderate in its summer climate, constitutes the best summer and recreation areas in the governorate. Some of them are among the considered summer resorts in the Syrian Arab Republic. The area of ​​​​Wadi al-Ayyun and the parks of Abu Qubais, Masyaf and the area of ​​Ain Halaqim are not the green mountains standing on the western parts of the governorate. Like a green island in the midst of a desolate desert in the summer. Not only that, but the state has recently carried out an extensive forestation campaign for some of the mountains of the interior region in the Al-Ula Mountains, starting with Ain Zarqa Mountain, west of Salamiyah, and ending with Zain Al-Abidin Mountain, north of Hama, as well as the mountains south of the Orontes, represented by Jabal Al-Arbaeen, Jabal Taqsis and Jabal Abu Darda, in addition to planting thousands of trees. Pine and birch trees in Jabal Al-Balaas. Preservation, as it is

It is obligatory to take, and there are many hills that the wanderer sees throughout the province of Hama, without taking into account that a large part of the hills are the ruins of ancient villages numbering in the hundreds, such as Tell Sakin al-Qa’ada (west of Mahrada), Tell al-Asharnah, Tell al-Dara (northeast of the town of Tell al-Dara). Tell Al-Samalil (north of the village of Al-Kafat), Tell Bury Al-Sharqi, east of Salamiyah, while there are some hills resulting from natural factors, meaning that they represent hills bearing witness (Hitiya Hills) resulting from the action of erosion forces varying with the variation of the rock structure and the activity of those forces, as in the group of hills located on The left of the Orontes River valley between it and
A group of mountains located to the west of Mount Taqsis and Jabal Al-Arbaeen), and as in many hills scattered over the Al-Ula plateau, and among the hills of conical shape of volcanic origin, we mention the hill of Al-Riba, northwest of Salamiyah.

In our tours in the governorate of Hama, we must cross many plain lands that are fertile soil and invested in various crops, which form a pillar of the local economy in the governorate. Among these plains we mention: Al-Ghab and Al-Asharnah plains located between the western edges of Jabal Al-Zawiya and the two plateaus of Suqaylabiyah Mahrada and the eastern edges of the coastal mountains, where the Orontes River cuts them in the middle. Before 1954 AD, the Al-Ghab Plain was occupied with swamps and outside of agricultural exploitation, to begin in 1954 and to introduce economic agricultural investment since the beginning of 1959. The length of the Al-Ghab Plain is about 50 km from the village of Al-Asharna to the village of Qarqour, its average width is about 10 km, and its average height above sea level is about 190 m. As for the Al-Asharnah Plain, which extends from the village of Shaizar to Al-Asharnah, with a length of about 30 km and a width of about 20 km, it is generally smaller in area than the Al-Ghab Al-Asharnah Plain (24 thousand hectares, Al-Ghab 50 thousand hectares) and higher (average height is about 210 meters). There are also plains extending along the course of the Orontes, from the river’s entry into the province of Hama to the village of Shaizar, which is known as the Azwar, along with what we can call bypassing the many plateau plains such as the plains of the Salamiyah plateau, the plain of the Al-Ula plateau, and the plain of the Suqaylabiyah and Mahrada plateaus, in which rain-fed crops predominate.

The gift of nature to the province of Hama did not stop at what we mentioned previously, but rather extended to grottoes and caverns under the surface of the earth, of exquisite beauty and high engineering, including stalagmites, stalagmites and columns that adorn its ceilings and bases. This is what was