Mashta al-Helou مشتى الحلو | |
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| Mashta al-Helou | |
  Mashta al-Helou Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates:34°52′35″N36°15′25″E / 34.87639°N 36.25694°E /34.87639; 36.25694 | |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | Tartus |
| District | Safita |
| Subdistrict | Mashta al-Helou |
| Elevation | 465 m (1,526 ft) |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 2,458 |
Mashta al-Helou (Arabic:مشتى الحلو, also known asMashta al-Helu orMashta al-Helo) is a town and resort in northwesternSyria, administratively part of theTartus Governorate, located 35 kilometers east ofTartus. Mashta al-Helou is situated in a verdant area on the eastern slopes of thean-Nusayriyah Mountains, the Syrian coastal mountain range, close to where the mountain give way to the basaltic plateaur of Jabal al-Helou.[1] The town has an elevation of 465 meters (1,526 ft) above sea level. Nearby localities includeKafrun to the west,al-Malloua andal-Bariqiyah to the southwest,Habnamrah andMarmarita to the south,Hadiya to the southeast,Kafr Ram to the east,Ayn Halaqim to the northeast,Ayn al-Shams to the north andDuraykish to the northwest.
According to theSyria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Mashta al-Helou had a population of 2,458 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Mashta al-Helounahiya (subdistrict) of theSafita District which contained 19 localities with a collective population of 12,577 in 2004.[2] Its inhabitants are predominantlyChristians,[3] mainly belonging to theGreek Orthodox Church,[4] orMaronite Church.
The town was founded by Christian families from different parts ofOttoman Syria (including modern Lebanon) who gradually settled in the site in the 18th and early 19th centuries, duringOttoman rule. The town modernized and became mostly literate long before many of the rural communities of the coastal mountains. Schools were opened by American, European and Russian missions in the late 19th century andsilk mill was built in 1855, one of the few industrial facilities in the coastal region into the 1960s. Since the 1980s, Mashta al-Helou has become a major summer resort town in the area and derives most of its income from tourism.
According to a book about the village penned by one of its residents, Michel Aji, the village was founded by Elias Maalouf in 1727 after he fled from his ancestral village ofKafarakab (in modern Lebanon) for killing someone there in a blood feud.[5] The area where the village was established was then known as Mashta Troush Hasan for the landowner of nearbyUyun al-Wadi, Hasan Agha al-Turkmani, who camped his livestock at Mashta for the winter and sheltered Elias in his home at Uyun al-Wadi. Elias became known as 'al-Aji' because he was an orphan and initially lived alone in the village site and his descendants took on this epithet as the family name.[5]
Other Christian families steadily migrated to Mashta. In 1730 the Msallam family fromZahle settled in the village and later became known as the Sous clan.[6] The Helou family arrived in 1742 fromNabe Karkar and originally from Ayn Hilya nearZabadani. Part of the Haddad or Zeirik family settled there in 1763, the other part settling in nearbyJenin, having originally come fromJobar and theHauran. The Nassar family arrived in 1772 fromDeir Atiyah, the Sabbaghs fromPalestine in 1791, the Bitar and Khoury families in 1823 and 1830 fromAyn al-Dahab, and the Awki-Hannoush family fromDaghlah in 1823.[7]
As inMount Lebanon, olive and mulberry growing spread in Mashta al-Helou and nearby Safita and Uyun al-Wadi in the 19th century, with mulberry trees raised forsilk worm cultivation.[8]Silk mills opened in the area[8] and the mill in Mashta was opened in 1855 by Philip Faroun from Mount Lebanon. It was sold to a French company in 1875.[9] In 1880, an American Evangelical school was opened in the village. Six years later, theJesuits opened a school in Beit Sarkis. In 1896 theRussian Orthodox Church opened a missionary school, the Palestinian Imperial Commission, in Mashta, which closed in 1917 then reopened as a government school underFrench Mandatory rule in 1920 and eventually became a secondary school.
The American school closed in 1947.[10] The first high schools opened in 1949 and 1951, the first operated by theSyrian Communist Party and the second opened by theSyrian Social Nationalist Party. The SSNP school was shut down after the assassination of the Ba'athist military officerAdnan al-Malki by the SSNP.[11]
Before theBa'ath Party gained power in Syria in the 1960s, Mashta al-Helou was one of a few villages in the coastal mountain region that was electrified and connected to a grid,[12] and one of the few with resident doctors.[13] The silk mill in the village was one of the only industrial facilities in the coastal region.[14] When these facilities were slated to be nationalized in 1963–1965,[14] the mill was sold to a Syrian businessman fromHoms, Antoine Samman, and was later purchased by the Nassar family of Mashta al-Helou, who closed the mill in 1970.[9] In the 1980s and 1990s popular summer resorts began to be built in Mashta al-Helou.[15] A luxury hotel was built in the village by entrepreneur Saheb Nahhas.[16] Tourism has become the primary source of income in Mashta al-Helou.[17]
In 1735 the Baisari family fromHadshit (in modern Lebanon) settled in Mashta and eventually took up abode on a nearby hill, which became a hamlet called Beit Sarkis after a monk from the family named Sarkis. The home Sarkis built became theMaronite Church of Beit Sarkis.[18] In 1960 Beit Sarkis was listed as its own village with a population of 223.[19] In 1962, the Catholic newspaperThe Criterion reported the village had 200 impoverished parishioners, many of whom were unemployed, and in need of funds to repair the Church of Beit Sarkis.[20] The population of Beit Sarkis in 1994 was 157.[19] and at a later point the village was incorporated into the Mashta al-Helou municipality. A notable resident of Beit Sarkis was Ramez Sarkis, a prominent real estate developer and civic leader who served as the mayor of Mashta al-Helou until his passing on November 15, 2020. Though small in size, Beit Sarkis has produced many notable individuals who have since emigrated to the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. Despite living abroad, many members of the diaspora return annually during the summer months to visit family and maintain strong ties to the village.
The old church of Mashta al-Helou, the Church of St. Elias, was built by Ibrahim al-Sabbagh in 1843. The second oldest church, Saydeh Church, in the town was founded by Askandra Hanna al-Haddad following her return fromJerusalem in 1890. It was completed in 1898, with its dome installed two years later.[21]
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