Za'ura (), was a

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Alawite Alawites () are an Arabs, Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate A ...

village situated in the northwestern

Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...

. (Za'ura shown as an abandoned/dismantled Syrian village) The German explorer

Ulrich Jasper Seetzen Ulrich Jasper Seetzen (30 January 1767September 1811) also known as Musa Al-Hakim was a German explorer of Arabia and Palestine (region), Palestine from Jever, German Frisia. An alternative spelling of his name, Ulrich Iospar Sentzen, is sometime ...

visited Za'ura in 1806 during his travels in the region. In 1888 the village consisted of 65 dwellings and 350 residents. They grew rice in the

Hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (''oli'') or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), ''mele''). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli ...

marshes and tobacco around the village. Before 1967, it was one of three mainly Alawite villages in the Golan Heights together with 'Ayn Fit and Ghajar. After Israel occupied the area in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

, they began destroying Syrian villages in the Golan Heights. Za'ura was destroyed in 1967.

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* {{Quneitra Governorate Alawite communities in Syria Razed cities Former populated places in the Golan Heights 1967 disestablishments in Syria Populated places disestablished in 1967

See also

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