Yalda, Syria

Yalda يلدا
Village
Yalda
Coordinates: 33°27′46″N 36°19′18″E
Country	Syria
Governorate	Rif Dimashq Governorate
District	Markaz Rif Dimashq
Nahiyah	Babbila
Population  (2004 census)
• Total	28,384
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Yalda (Arabic: يلدا, romanized: Yaldā, also spelled Yelda) is a town in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located on the southern outskirts of Damascus to the west of the Yarmouk Camp. Nearby localities include al-Hajar al-Aswad, Jaramana, Sayyidah Zaynab, al-Sabinah and Babbila. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Yalda had a population of 28,384 in the 2004 census. The town is also in the Babbila nahiyah consisting of 13 towns and villages with a combined population of 341,625.

History

The town has ancient ruins including foundations of hewn stone and Corinthian columns of basalt.

Yalda was visited by Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in the early 13th-century, during Ayyubid rule. He noted that it was "a village lying some 3 miles from Damascus. The final n is sometimes left out, and the name pronounced Yalda."

Bibliography

• Porter, Josias Leslie (1855). Five years in Damascus: including an account of the history, topography, and antiquities of that city : with travels and researches in Palmyra, Lebanon, and the Hauran. Vol. 2. John Murray.
• Strange, le, Guy (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

External links

• google map