| Syrian Coastal Mountain Range | |
|---|---|
| سلسلة الجبال الساحلية | |
 Coastal Mountain Range | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Nabi Yunis |
| Elevation | 1,562 m (5,125 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 150 km (93 mi) |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | Syria |
| Range coordinates | 35°36′N36°14′E / 35.60°N 36.24°E /35.60; 36.24 |
TheCoastal Mountain Range (Arabic:سلسلة الجبال الساحلية,Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah), also calledJabal al-Ansariya,Jabal an-Nusayria orJabal al-`Alawīyin (Ansari, Nusayri or Alawi Mountains), is amountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, parallel to the coastal plain.[1] The mountains have an average width of 32 kilometres (20 mi), and their average peak elevation is just over 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) with the highest peak,Nabi Yunis, reaching 1,562 metres (5,125 ft), east ofLatakia.[1] In the north the average height declines to 900 metres (3,000 ft), and to 600 metres (2,000 ft) in the south.
This mountain range has been home to anAlawite population since theMiddle Ages.[2]
Classically, this range was known as theBargylus,[3][2] a name mentioned byPliny the Elder.[4] The name probably had its roots in the name of an ancient city-kingdom calledBarga, located in the vicinity of the mountains;[5] it was a city of theEblaite Empire in the third millennium BC,[6] and then a vassal kingdom of theHittites,[7] who named the mountain range after Barga.[8]
In the medieval period they were known as theJabal Bahra (جبل بهراء) after theArab tribe ofBahra'.[9] They are also sometimes known as theNusayriyah Mountains or theAnsarieh Mountains (جبال النصيريةJibāl an-Nuṣayriyah) or theAlawiyin Mountains (جبال العلويينJibāl al-‘Alawīyin); both of these names refer to theAlawiethnoreligious group which has traditionally lived there, though the former term is based on anantiquated label for the community that is now considered insulting.
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The western slopes catch moisture-laden winds from theMediterranean Sea and are thus more fertile and more heavily populated than the eastern slopes. TheOrontes River flows north alongside the range on its eastern verge in theGhab Plain, a 64 kilometres (40 mi)longitudinal trench,[10] and then around the northern edge of the range to flow into the Mediterranean. South ofMasyaf there is a large northeast-southweststrike-slip fault which separates An-Nusayriyah Mountain from the coastalMount Lebanon and theAnti-Lebanon mountains ofLebanon, in a feature known as theHoms Gap.[1]
Between 1920 and 1936, the mountains formed parts of the eastern border of theAlawite State within the FrenchMandate for Syria and the Lebanon.
These limestone hills rising to some 1500 m, the ancient Mons Bargylus or present Jebel Ansariyeh, inhabited by an Alawi population since the Middle Ages, have never been open to archaeological investigation, and remain an almost complete blank in the archaeological and social map of the region.
