Qarah or Karah is a Syrian town in the Qalamoun District of the Rif Dimashq Governorate. It is located between the Qalamoun Mountains and the Eastern Lebanon mountains range, 95 kilometres (59 mi) north of the capital Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 on the road to the city of Homs

Homs

Homs , previously known as Emesa , is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located north of Damascus...

.

History

It was the southern-most town in the Jund Hims

Jund Hims

Jund Hims was one of the four military districts of the Caliphate province of Syria. Its capital was Homs, from which the district received its name...

 military district of Greater Syria

Greater Syria

Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....

 during the Umayyad Caliphate. Abu'l-Fida

Abu'l-Fida

Abu al-Fida or Abul Fida Ismail Hamvi was a Kurdish historian, geographer, and local sultan...

 described it in his Geography of 1321 as a large village half way between Damascus and Homs. It is a waystation for the caravans. Most of its inhabitants are Christians. It lies 1½ marches from Homs and 2 marches from Damascus.

Since the fourteenth century Qarah has been eclipsed by An Nabk its neighbor to the south.

External links

• "Photograph of Qarah street" Flickr.com
• MSN Map