Anadan ( ar, عندان) is a city in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, 12 kilometers north of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, located on the Aleppo–

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approximat ...

international road. It is in the

Mount Simeon District Mount Simeon District ( ar-at, منطقة جبل سمعان, mantiqah, manṭiqat Jabal Sem‘ān), also known as ''Jabal Sem`an'', is a Districts of Syria, district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of ...

of the

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the ...

. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Anadan had a population of 11,918 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Aleppo Governorate. The town is known for its agriculture produce, such as grain, legumes, olives and different types of fruit. The city of Anadan is built on a hill surrounded by a plain. Anadan currently has about thirteen mosques and several elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school for boys and girls. During the

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

period, in the 1220s, Anadan was visited by Syrian geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known fo ...

who noted it was "a village near Kinnasrin, in the Kurah district of Urtik, of the Awasim Province." The 13th-century ''Marasid'' listed it as a village northeast of Aleppo.

Syrian civil war

The

Battle of Anadan The Battle of Anadan ( ar, معركة عندان) was a ten-hour-long armed confrontation between the rebels of the Free Syrian Army and soldiers of the Syrian Army that occurred when FSA forces attempted to overrun a large army checkpoint in t ...

occurred in Anadan from July 29–30, 2012, during the Syrian civil war. It has been the site of heavy shelling by the Syrian military during the uprising against President

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...

's government. Consequently, approximately 30,000 people—most of Anadan's population—have fled according to opposition sources. As a result, Anadan has been described as a "ghost town" by journalist Suleiman al-Khalidi of ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

released satellite images which show that Anadan has come under heavy artillery bombardment during the uprising. On 24 January 2017,

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

captured the town from

Ahrar al-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya ( ar-at, حركة أحرار الشام الإسلامية, Ḥarakat Aḥrāru š-Šām al-Islāmiyah, lit=Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, is a coalition ...

militants. On 16 February 2020, the city was recaptured by the

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ( ar, الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبيُّ السُّورِيُّ, al-Jayš al-ʿArabī as-Sūrī), is the army, land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military ...

References

{{Aleppo Governorate, simeon Populated places in Mount Simeon District