Jabal al-Druze ( ar, جبل الدروز, ''jabal ad-durūz'', ''Mountain of the Druze''), officially Jabal al-Arab ( ar, جبل العرب, links=no, ''jabal al-ʿarab'', ''Mountain of the Arabs''), is an elevated volcanic region in the As-Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria. Most of the inhabitants of this region are Druze, and there are also small Muslim and significant Christian communities.The Druze and Assad: Strategic Bedfellows
/ref>

Safaitic Safaitic ( ''Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah'') is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the nomads of the basalt desert of southern Syria and northern Jordan, the so-called Ḥarrah, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and A ...

inscriptions were first found in this area. The State of Jabal Druze was an autonomous area in the

French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...

from 1921 to 1936. In the past, the name Jabal al-Druze was used for a different area, located in Mount Lebanon.

Geology

The Jabal al-Druze volcanic field, the southernmost in Syria, lies in the Haurun-Druze Plateau in SW Syria near the border with Jordan. The most prominent feature of this volcanic field is 1800m-high Jabal al-Druze (also known variously as Jabal ad Duruz, Djebel Al-Arab, Jabal Druze, Djebel ed Drouz). The alkaline volcanic field consists of a group of 118 basaltic volcanoes active from the lower-Pleistocene to the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

(2.6 million years ago to present). The large SW Plateau depression is filled by basaltic lava flows from volcanoes aligned in a NW-SE direction. This volcanic field lies within the northern part of the massive alkaline

Harrat al-Sham The ''Ḥarrat al-Shām'' ( ar, حَرَّة ٱلشَّام), also known as the Black Desert, is a region of rocky, basaltic desert straddling southern Syria and the northern Arabian Peninsula. It covers an area of some in the modern-day Syria ...

(also known as Harrat al-Shaam) volcanic field that extends from southern Syria to Saudi Arabia.

Peaks

* Tell Qeni (1,803 m) * Tell Joualine (1,732 m) * Tell Sleiman (1,703 m) * Tell Qleib (1,698 m) * Tell Abou-Hamra (1,482 m) * Tell El-Ahmar (1,452 m) * Tell Abed-Mar (1,436 m) * Tell Khodr-Imtan (1,341 m) * Tell Azran (1,220 m) * Tell Shihan (1,138 m) In

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, the word "'' tell''" means "mound" or "hill", but in Jabal al-Druze it rather refers to a

volcanic cone Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and ...

References

{{Coord, 32, 40, N, 36, 44, E, region:SY_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Jabal ad Duruz Volcanic fields Druze in Syria Druze Cultural regions Eastern Mediterranean conifer–sclerophyllous–broadleaf forests

Geology

Peaks

See also

References