Misplaced Pages

Al-Safsafah, Tartus

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Safsafah) Town in northwestern Syria Town in Tartus, Syria
Al-Safsafah الصفصافة
Town
Al-Safsafah is located in SyriaAl-SafsafahAl-Safsafah
Coordinates: 34°44′7″N 36°3′10″E / 34.73528°N 36.05278°E / 34.73528; 36.05278
Country Syria
GovernorateTartus
DistrictTartus
SubdistrictAl-Safsafah
Population
 • Total6,011
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

Al-Safsafah (Arabic: الصفصافة) is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located southeast of Tartus and 13 kilometers north of the border with Lebanon. Nearby localities include Ayn al-Zibdeh and Kafr Fo to the southeast, al-Tulay'i to the east, Buwaydet al-Suwayqat to the northeast, Beit al-Shaykh Yunes to the north, Ayn al-Zarqa to the northwest and al-Hamidiyah to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Safsafah had a population of 6,011 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the al-Safsafah nahiyah ("sub-district") which contained 19 localities with a collective population of 23,416 in 2004. The inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.

History

One of the principle families of the town are the Abbas family. They formerly served as aghawat ("local military leaders") during the Ottoman era.

The al-Safsafah subdistrict was detached from the Safita District and transferred to the Tartus District in 1970. During the presidency of Hafez al-Assad (1970-2000), al-Safsafah and the coastal subdistrict center of al-Hamidiyah competed for the role of capital in a newly planned mantiqah ("district") consisting of the Akkar plain of Syria. Although no new district has yet been created, in 1994 a branch of the Agricultural Bank of Syria was opened in al-Safsafah, which is normally reserved for district capitals.

References

  1. ^ General Census of Population and Housing 2004. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Tartus Governorate. (in Arabic)
  2. ^ Balanche, Fabrice (2006). La région alaouite et le pouvoir syrien (PDF) (in French). Karthala Editions. ISBN 2845868189.
Tartus Governorate
Capital: Tartus
Tartus District
Tartus Governorate within Syria
Tartus Governorate
Baniyas District
Safita District
Duraykish District
Al-Shaykh Badr District
Categories: