Qardaha

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al-Qurdaha
القَرْدَاحَة
Town
UTC+3 (EEST
)

Qardaha (

ALA-LC: Qardāḥah) is a town in northwestern Syria, in the mountains overlooking the coastal town of Latakia. Nearby localities include Kilmakho to the west, Bustan al-Basha to the southwest, Harf al-Musaytirah to the southeast and Muzayraa to the north. According to the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics, Qardaha had a population of 8,671 in 2004.[1] It has a predominantly Alawite population and is the traditional home of the al-Assad family,[2] which has ruled Syria since the 1970 Corrective Movement
.

Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, who ruled from 1970 to 2000, was born in Qardaha. Under Assad, the government poured massive investments into Qardaha, Latakia and the surrounding region. Qardaha has many luxurious villas. A major statue of Hafez al-Assad is found in the town center, and a huge mausoleum containing the graves of Bassel al-Assad and Hafez al-Assad is also located there. Hasan al-Khayer was also born in Qardaha.

Climate and geography

Qardaha has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification
: Csa). Qardaha is in a mountainous area, but its altitude is only between 350 and 500 meters. It is in a beautiful forested area. Qardaha has much rainfall. The average high temperature in July is 29 °C, and in January is 7 °C. There is nearly 828 mm of rainfall annually and three days of snow in January. The climate and nature in Qerdaha favour agriculture, and there are apple and orange plantations and tobacco farms.

History

According to written traditions, the residents of Qardaha descended from the Kalbiyya tribal confederation and the town served as the confederation's principal center. During the late Ottoman era, between 1840 and 1880, tensions between the authorities and the Alawite tribes of the coastal mountains increased sharply. In 1854 the Ottoman governor of the Latakia Sanjak ("Latakia District") was killed in an armed confrontation between the authorities and members of the Qardaha-based tribe. This emboldened the Kalbiyya fighters, who proceeded to launch more raids against Ottoman positions, which the authorities responded to harshly.[2]

Fear of attracting the attention and subjugation of the authorities, and avoiding taxation and military conscription, was one of the reasons many of the Alawite

fellahin ("peasants") who lived in the vicinity of Qardaha, opted not to establish an agglomeration of settlement. Until the present day, Qardaha is surrounded by scattered rural hamlets. The town formerly had a significant Christian population until the mid to late 20th-century, when most Christian families left for the major coastal cities.[2]

Basil al-Assad
, with the main tomb in the center

In 1970, Qardaha was given city status, along with

nahiya) of al-Qadmus and Mashta al-Helu, predominantly Ismaili and Christian, respectively, were slated to become districts when each of their populations passed the 60,000 threshold, although the subdistricts of Qardaha, al-Shaykh Badr and Duraykish all had less than 40,000 inhabitants.[2]

In early October 2012 during the

Aramo, 20 km. (12 miles) from Qardaha. One of the attackers stated "The objective is to reach Qardaha and hurt them like they are hurting us."[6]

References

  1. ^ General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Latakia Governorate. (in Arabic)
  2. ^
    ISBN 2845868189
    .
  3. ^ "Climate". Climate Zone. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  4. Daily Star
    . Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  5. ^ Syria's civil war: Yet another massacre
  6. ^ Khaled Yacoub Oweis (6 August 2013). "Syrian rebels push into Assad's Alawite mountain stronghold". Reuters. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
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