Mhardeh

محردة / Maḥarda Mhardeh
Mhardeh
Coordinates	35 ° 15 ′  N , 36 ° 35 ′  E Coordinates: 35 ° 15 ′  N , 36 ° 35 ′  E
Basic data
Country	Syria
Governorate	Hama
height	275 m
Residents	22,183 (2009)
Roman bridge in Mhardeh

Mhardeh (also Muhradah , Arabic محردة Maharda , DMG Maḥarda ) is a city in the Hama Governorate in Syria . It has 22,183 inhabitants (calculation 2009), mostly Christians , the majority Greek Orthodox .

geography

Mahardah is located on the Orontes River , about 23 km northwest of the city of Hama , near the castle Shaizar , in the center of Mantiqa Mahardah ( Mantiqa = district), one of five districts of Hamas.

economy

Mhardeh traditionally lived almost entirely from viticulture , and the buyers of the wine were both the churches and the numerous Christian families. With increasing urbanization, viticulture declined and has also suffered from the civil war , but is still present. The cultivation of olive trees , various fruit trees , vegetables, cotton and wheat has been added to viticulture . In the industrial sector, there is the food industry, beverage production and repair shops for agricultural machines, which accept orders from all over Syria.

Due to the high rate of emigrants, Mhardeh is a relatively wealthy city. The main destination of emigrants used to be South America , nowadays most of the exiles work in sub-Saharan Africa .

history

The hieroglyphic Luwian funerary inscription (?) Of a king named Taitas comes from the time of the Neo-Hittite states ; the grave stele of his wife is known from nearby Schaizar.

Mhardeh comes from the Hellenistic period of Apameas . The most important archaeological remnant of this period is an old temple with stone gates and columns with Corinthian capitals, which was later converted into a church.

In the civil war in Syria Islamist rebels participated in March 2015, about 100 kilometers north lies the city of Idlib , and the adjoining the Hama Governorate Idlib province came under the control of rebels, under which soon the radical "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" ( Hai'at Tahrir ash-shame ) dominated. The front ran directly north of Mhardeh, which regularly came under heavy artillery fire. Local residents formed a militia as part of the National Defense Forces (قوات الدفاع الوطني, DMG Quwwāt ad-Difāʿ al-Waṭanī ), who were deployed alongside the Syrian army . In an attack on Mhardeh on September 7, 2018 alone, 13 people were killed, the majority of them playing children. A total of 160 residents of the village died as a result of the fighting by the end of July 2019, both militiamen and numerous civilians, including many women and children. Many residents fled abroad because of the war. Nevertheless, Mhardeh is considered a place that most residents do not want to leave. From April to the end of July 2019, the Christian militia and the Syrian army, with the support of the Russian air force, were able to gain ground near Mhardeh, and in August 2019, residents of the city celebrated the militia and army's successes against the Islamists in hopes of an end to the threat. In a mass and a large procession on that day, believers thanked the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Hama Nikolaus Baalbaki for the victory over the jihadists and at the same time remembered the many war dead, their family members.

Attractions

There are several churches in Mhardeh. The Frauenkirche is the oldest church (كنيسة السيدة العذراء 'Church of Our Lady Jungfrau' or "Church of Our Lady" for short كنيسة السيدة) of the Greek Orthodox Church , which is said to have been built on the foundations of an ancient Greek temple. Other churches include the Church of St. Georg (كنيسة مار جرجس), the Joachim and Anna Church (كنيسة يواكيم وحنة) and the Church of St. Elias (كنيسة مار الياس). Nearby is the village of Schaizar , whose castle attracts day trippers and tourists.

Mhardeh Dam

3 km north of the city of Mhardeh is the Mhardeh Dam, completed in 1960, with a dam height of 41 m and a storage space of 67 million m ³ . The reservoir has a water surface of 4.5 km ² . The dam is primarily used for irrigation and also for generating electricity from hydropower .

Sons and daughters of the place

• Ghada Shouaa (* 1972), the first Syrian female athlete to win an Olympic gold medal
• Ignatius IV (1921–2012), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch

Individual evidence

1. ^ World Gazetteer
2. ↑ أماني الشيخ ، لجمعة 9 سبتمبر 2016 ، مواطن الخمر السوري وأهله (Amani al-Sheikh, 2016).
3. ↑ ^{a b} 100 solar systems for the most necessary power supply in Maharda. Go for Climate, April 16, 2018.
4. ^ John David Hawkins : Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions vol. 1: Inscriptions of the Iron Age (= studies on Indo-European linguistics and cultural studies NF 8.1). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, pp. 415-419. ISBN 3-11-010864-X .
5. ^ Georges Fahmi: The Future of Syrian Christians after the Arab Spring. European University Institute (Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies), Badia Fiesolana, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI, Italy) 2018. p. 9 (in PDF: p. 11).
6. ↑ Mahardah - The unbearable pain of a grandmother in mourning. SOS Chrétiens d'Orient, April 1, 2019.
7. ^ ^{A b} Charles de Meyer: Mahardah, a light of hope for the Christians in the Middle East. SOS Chrétiens d'Orient, August 29, 2019.
8. ↑ أبناء محردة يحيّون الجيش العربي السوري Damas Times, August 23, 2019.
9. ↑ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Middle East Dams , accessed June 11, 2018.