Syria’s embattled president Bashar Assad may be in the midst of one of the bloodiest wars of contemporary times, but he’s still apparently got the time and the money for big tourist development projects.
On Sunday, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that Syria's Ministry of Housing and Urban Development had adopted plans drafted by the Ministry of Tourism to develop historical and archaeological sites on a small island off the coast of Latakia.
Here’s how the Syrian government envisions the island looking when they’re finished:
Syrian ministry of tourism to go ahead with development plans on the ancient Phoenician island of Arwad. Yeah.. pic.twitter.com/b1hyh2fDK7
— Lina Arabi (@LinaArabii) May 29, 2016
Currently, the island, which is named Arwad, is a small fishing enclave with a modest tourist economy that is still chugging along despite the five-year civil war that has claimed nearly half a million lives by some estimates. The island is located in the Mediterranean Sea a few miles off the coast of Tartous. It had a population of just 4,400, according to the 2004 census.
An Irish traveler who visited Arwad in March described it in a review on the online travel forum TripAdvisor:
"The island is totally built-up: a small but busy harbour with people coming and going from the mainland, narrow alleyways, clustered houses, a traditional timber-boat yard, and a small well-preserved Crusader fort in the middle on high ground."
Arwad was part of the ancient civilization of Phoenicia, which fluorished in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas from the ninth to sixth centuries B.C., according to National Geographic. At its height, Phoenicia boasted trading ports in modern day Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and north Africa.
@LinaArabii One has to appreciate the lengths they go in order to send a message of normalcy.
— Jonas Ryberg (@Jonas_Ryberg) May 29, 2016
Although the island appears to have remained an area of relative stability since the Syrian uprising of 2011 erupted into full-blown war, Arwad has had a bloody history. Arwadian soldiers fought against the Egyptians at the Battle Of Kadesh in 1299 B.C., according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
The island was later ruled by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians and then, in the 12th and 13th centuries A.D., by the Templars, Crusader knights whose job was to protect Christian pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land. Arab armies booted the Templars in 1302, however, and took over the island in the process.
-HS
