Ledja
Ledja , also al-Laja; is a landscape in the south of Syria . It lies in the eastern part of the volcanic basalt plains of the Hauran .
The rocky desert of Ledja is the largest contiguous basalt block field in southern Syria and covers an area of 900 square kilometers on the northwestern foothills of the Jebel ad-Duruz . In some depressions (Qaa) with a diameter of a few hundred meters or kilometers, a fine lava weathered soil has collected. Here are the fields of small villages, whose water supply can only come from cisterns.
history
In ancient times, Ledja belonged to the area of trachonitis, which began in the 2nd century BC. Was ruled by the Nabataeans . In Roman times , the existing trade routes that connected Bostra with Damascus , among other things, were expanded. Along the course of the road you can find the ruins of several smaller villages from Roman times.
The interior of the Ledja was only used as grazing land by Bedouins (most of the Sulut tribe) until the 19th century. Furthermore, the Ledja was a retreat for bandits until the 20th century. Around 1860 some Druze settled in Dama, the main town in the middle of the area. Until then, only a few Christian families lived in the ruins of an early Byzantine settlement in Dama , of which there are still the remains of over 300 houses and several churches. The Sulut did not want to tolerate the newcomers, so that in the summer of 1868 there was fighting between the two groups, after which the Druze temporarily withdrew. When they returned, they paid tribute to the Sulut with part of their harvest. In 1884 there were 40 Druze and 12 Catholic families in Dama. By 1900 the Christians had left the place, the Druze had stopped paying tribute and had to defend themselves against attacks by the Sulut without outside help.
From the 1860s on there were some settlements along the Wadi al Liwa on the eastern edge of the Ledja. Other small Druze settlements were established in the following decade. The Druze of the Halabi family clan came from the middle of the northern Syrian limestone massif , from Qalb Loze on the Jebel il-Ala and from places in the mountains of the Jebel Barisha to the east. In 1927 there were 26 Druze villages with an average of 295 inhabitants. No village had more than 1,000 residents.
literature
- Eugen Wirth : Syria, a geographic study of the country. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1971, p. 419 f.
- A. Negev: The Nabateans and the Provincia Arabia . In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World . Vol. II. 8, Berlin a. a. 1977, p. 618 ff.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Norman N. Lewis: Nomads and settlers in Syria and Jordan, 1800–1980. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, pp. 88-90
Coordinates: 32 ° 58 ′ 10.2 ″ N , 36 ° 27 ′ 19.4 ″ E