| Latakia or Latakiyah is the principal port city of Syria, capital of the Latakia Governorate. Its population is 554,000.
Latakia is now the principal port of Syria; it is located on a good harbour, with an extensive agricultural hinterland. Exports include bitumen and asphalt, cereals, cotton, fruits, eggs, vegetable oil, pottery, and tobacco. Cotton ginning, vegetable-oil processing, tanning, and sponge fishing are local industries. The University of Latakia was founded in 1971 and renamed Gami't Tishrin (University of October) in 1976. The city is linked by road to Aleppo, Homs, Tripoli, and Beirut. All but a few classical buildings have been destroyed, often by earthquakes; those remaining include a Roman triumphal arch and Corinthian columns known as the colonnade of Bacchus.
The modern city still exhibits faint traces of its former importance, notwithstanding the frequent earthquakes with which it has been visited. The marina is built upon foundations of ancient columns, and there are in the town, an old gateway and other antiquities, as also sarcophagi and sepulchral caves in the neighbourhood. This gateway is a remarkable triumphal arch, at the southeast corner of the town, almost entire: it is built with four entrances, like the Forum Jani at Rome. It is conjectured that this arch was built in honour of Lucius Verus, or of Septimius Severus. Fragments of Greek and Latin inscriptions, are dispersed all over the ruins, but entirely defaced.
Notable points of interest in the nearby include the massive Saladin's Castle and the ruins of Ugarit, where some of the earliest alphabetic writings have been found. There are also several popular beaches.
|
