Coastal Mountains and Alawite Villages
Explore the green Nusayriyah Mountains behind Latakia, the forested coastal range where Alawite villages, ancient ruins, and the Mediterranean microclimate create a Syrian landscape utterly different from the arid desert interior.
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Mountain Road
Drive up the Nusayriyah Mountains from Latakia where the road climbs through increasingly dense Mediterranean forest, the green landscape fed by the moisture of the sea creating a temperate zone surprising in the context of the Middle East.
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Alawite Villages
Visit traditional Alawite villages in the mountains where the stone houses, terraced agriculture, and community life of the coastal mountain people have developed their distinct character over centuries of relative isolation from the Syrian interior.
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Mountain Forests
Walk in the coastal mountain forests where oak, pine, and cedar trees create shade in the Syrian summer, the forested ridges of the Nusayriyah range providing relief from the Mediterranean heat in the green hills above the coast.
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Qardaha
Visit Qardaha, the hometown of the Assad family, where the mausoleum of Hafez al-Assad draws visitors to this mountain village that became politically significant through the rise of its most famous son to power in Syria.
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Saladin Castle
Visit Saladin Castle (Qalaat Salah al-Din), the Byzantine and Crusader fortress in the mountains inland from Latakia, the UNESCO-listed castle where the extraordinary rock-cut ditch and defensive towers represent some of the finest Crusader military architecture in Syria.
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Sea Views
Enjoy the panoramic views from the mountain ridge looking back over the Mediterranean coast where Latakia and its harbor are visible below, the blue sea stretching to the horizon providing the orientation that defines this coastal Syrian region.