An-Nusayriyah Mountains

Map of Syria showing the mountain range

An-Nusayriyah Mountains (Arabic: جبال النصيرية‎) also known as al-Alawiyeen Mountains (Arabic: جبال العلويين‎), both names refer to the Alawi sect which has traditionally lived there, and the Syrian official name, Coastal Mountain Range (Arabic: سلسلة الجبال الساحلية‎); are a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north-south, parallel to the coastal plain.^[1] Classically they were known as the Bargylus^[2] and under the Hashashins were known as the Jabal Bahra.^[3]

The mountains have an average width of 32 kilometres (20 mi), and their average peak elevation is just over 1,200 meters with the highest peak, Nabi Yunis, reaching 1,562 metres (5,125 ft), east of Latakia.^[1] In the north the average height declines to 900 metres (3,000 ft), and to 600 metres (2,000 ft) in the south.

The western slopes catch moisture-laden winds from the Mediterranean Sea and are thus more fertile and more heavily populated than the eastern slopes. The Orontes River flows north along side the range on its eastern verge in the Ghab valley, a 64 kilometres (40 mi) longitudinal trench,^[4] and then around the northern edge of the range to flow into the Mediterranean. South of Masyaf there is a large northeast-southwest strike-slip fault which separates An-Nusayriyah Mountain from the coastal Lebanon Mountains and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains of Lebanon, in a feature known as the Homs Gap.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (2005) "Country Profile: Syria" page 5
2. ^ Hackett, Horatio B. (editor) (1870) Dr. William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible: comprising its antiquities, biography, geography, and natural history (Volume IV, Regum-Melech to Zuzims) Hurd and Houghton, New York, page 3142, OCLC 325913985
3. ^ Hunyadi, Zsolt; Laszlovszky, József, eds (2001). The Crusades and the Military Orders: Expanding the Frontiers of Medieval Latin Christianity. Ceu Medievalia. Budapest: Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Central European University Press. p. 27. ISBN 963-9241-42-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=1m4fbJyQ4pkC. 
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica - Syria

Coordinates: 35°15′N 36°06′E / 35.25°N 36.1°E / 35.25; 36.1