Palmyra Atoll

Location of the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean

Palmyra Atoll – Landsat Image N-03-05 2000

Palmyra Atoll – NOAA Nautical Chart (1:47,500)

Orthographic projection over Palmyra Atoll

Palmyra Atoll ( /pælˈmaɪrə/) is an essentially unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as an unorganized incorporated territory by the United States federal government. The variable temporary population of 4–20 "non-occupants" are essentially staff and scientists employed by various departments of the US government and The Nature Conservancy,^[1] as well as a rotating mix of Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium^[2] scholars pursuing research.

Palmyra is one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati Line Islands), located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. The atoll is 4.6 sq mi (12 km²), and it is located in the equatorial Northern Pacific Ocean. Its 9 mi (14 km) of coastline has one anchorage known as West Lagoon.

The atoll consists of an extensive reef, two shallow lagoons, and some 50 sand and reef-rock islets and bars covered with vegetation—mostly coconut trees, Scaevola, and tall Pisonia trees.

The islets of the atoll are all connected, except Sand Island and the two Home Islets in the west and Barren Island in the east. The largest island is Cooper Island in the north, followed by Kaula Island in the south. The northern arch of islets is formed by Strawn Island, Cooper Island, Aviation Island, Quail Island, Whippoorwill Island, followed in the east by Eastern Island, Papala Island, and Pelican Island, and in the south by Bird Island, Holei Island, Engineer Island, Tanager Island, Marine Island, Kaula Island, Paradise Island, and Home Island (clockwise). Average annual rainfall is approximately 175 in (4,400 mm) per year. Daytime temperatures average 85 °F (29 °C) year round.

Political status[link]

Palmyra is an incorporated territory of the United States (the only such territory in existence since 1959), meaning that it is subject to all provisions of the U.S. Constitution and that is permanently under American sovereignty. However, since Palmyra is also an unorganized territory, there is no Act of Congress specifying how Palmyra should be governed. Palmyra is also uninhabited, as far as permanent residents are concerned.

The only relevant Federal law simply gives the President the authority to administer Palymra as he best sees fit (see Section 48 of the Hawaii Omnibus Act, Pub. L. 86–624, July 12, 1960, 74 Stat. 411, attached as a note to former sections 491 to 636 of Title 48, United States Code^[3]).

Palmyra's North Beach

The issue of the governing of Palmyra is generally a moot point, since there is no permanent population remaining there, nor any reason to think that there will be in the future. Palmyra is the only unorganized incorporated territory of the United States. Cooper Island in this atoll is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and it is managed as a nature reserve. The rest of Palmyra is Federal land and waters under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.^[4] Since Palmyra has no local government at all, it is administered directly from Washington, D.C., by the Office of Insular Affairs, of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

For all other purposes, Palmyra is counted as one of the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands.

Palmyra airstrip, Cooper Island (ICAO code PLPA)

There is no current economic activity on Palmyra. Most of the roads and causeways there were built during WW II. All of these are now unserviceable and overgrown with bushes and grass. There is a 2,000-meter-long, unpaved, airstrip on Cooper Island (Palmyra (Cooper) Airport, ICAO code PLPA), that was built for the Navy during WW II.

Palmyra has been occupied, off and on, by a group of scientists, Nature Conservancy members, and volunteers, and representatives of the Fish & Wildlife (up to 20 people in total) for the past decade.^[when?]

A construction program in 2004 consisted of several two-person bungalows and showers for the temporary residents. Fresh water is collected from the roof of a concrete building in this area. The communal buildings of the area on the north side of Cooper Island (the only occupied area of the atoll) consist of a common cooking and dining building next to the only sea dock, and there a kayak and scuba diving equipment storage building next to this.

Palmyra Atoll's location in the Pacific Ocean, where the southern and northern currents meet, means that its beaches are littered with trash and debris. Washed-up plastic mooring buoys and plastic bottles are plentiful on the beaches of Palmyra.

History[link]

Welcome sign for Palmyra Atoll, June 2005

Palmyra was sighted in 1798 by the American sea captain Edmund Fanning of Stonington, Connecticut while his ship, the Betsy, was sailing to Asia. According to the accounts, Fanning had awoken three times during the night before. On the third time, he took this as a premonition, and he ordered his first mate to heave to. On the next morning the ship resumed its travel, but she only went about a nautical mile before reaching the reef of Palmyra. Had the ship continued on her course at night, the ship might have been wrecked.^[5] On November 7, 1802, Captain Sawle and the U.S.S. Palmyra shipwrecked on the reef, which ultimately took the name of this vessel.

In 1859, Palmyra Atoll was claimed for the United States by Dr. Gerrit P. Judd of the brig Josephine, in accordance with the Guano Islands Act of 1856, but there was no guano there to be mined. On February 26, 1862, King Kamehameha IV of the Hawaiian Islands commissioned Captain Zenas Bent and Johnson Beswick Wilkinson, both Hawaiian citizens, to take possession of the atoll, and on April 15, 1862, it was formally annexed to the Kingdom of Hawaii.^[6]

Throughout the next century, ownership of the atoll passed through various hands. Bent sold his rights to Palmyra to Wilkinson on December 24, 1862, and the atoll was owned by Kalama Wilkinson (Johnson's widow) through 1885. It was then divided between three heirs, two of whom immediately gave their rights to William Luther Wilcox who, in turn, gave them to the Pacific Navigation Company. In 1897, this company was liquidated, and its interests were sold first to William Ansel Kinney, and then to Fred Wunderburg.^[7]

Wilkinson's third heir sold his rights to William Ringer.^[8]

Then in 1889, Commander Nichols of the British ship HMS Cormorant claimed Palmyra for the United Kingdom, unaware of the prior claim made by the Kingdom of Hawaii.^[9]

In 1898, Palmyra was annexed to the United States along with the overall annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, and on June 14, 1900, Palmyra became part of the new Territory of Hawaii.^[6] To end all British claims, a second act of annexation by the U.S. Government was made in 1911. This Act of Congress made Palmyra the only "incorporated territory" of the United States at that time.

Since the Panama Canal was about to open up, the Palmyra's location became important. The British Empire had established a submarine cable station for the All Red Line on nearby Fanning Island.^[10] Hence the warship USS West Virginia was dispatched to Palmyra, on February 21, 1912, she formally reaffirmed the American claim on Palmyra.^[6]

In 1912, Henry Ernest Cooper (1857–1929) acquired William Ringer's property rights to Palmyra and, after a challenge in court, he became the sole owner of the atoll.^[8] Cooper visited the island in July 1913 with the scientists Charles Montague Cooke, Jr., and Joseph F. Rock, who wrote up a scientific description of the atoll.^[11]

Cooper sold the whole atoll except two minor islets to Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo on August 19, 1922 for $15,000. These two people established the Palmyra Copra Company to harvest the coconuts growing on the atoll. Their three sons, including actor Leslie Vincent, continued as the owners afterwards, except for the period of administration by the U.S. Navy during World War II (1940–1945).

Palmyra under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy[link]

In 1934, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra were placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Navy. The Navy took over the atoll for use as the Palmyra Island Naval Air Station on August 15, 1941. From November 1939 through 1947, the atoll had resident Federal Government representatives, the island commanders.

Following World War II, much of the Naval Air Station there was demolished, with some of the materials piled up and burned on the atoll, dumped into the lagoon, or in the case of unexploded ordnance on some of the islets, left in place.^[12] After the war, the Fullard-Leo family sued for the return of the ownership of Palmyra Atoll to themselves all the way up to the Supreme Court. The family won its court case in 1947. The Cooper family still owns two of the five islands.^[6]

When Hawaii was admitted to the United States in 1959, Palmyra was explicitly separated from the new state as a federal incorporated territory, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.^[6] In 1962, the U.S. Department of Defense used Palmyra as an observation site during several high-altitude nuclear weapons tests high above Johnston Atoll. A group of about ten men supported the observation posts during this series of tests, while about 40 people came for the actual tests to carry out the observations using their technical equipment.

In December 2000, most of Palymyra Atoll was bought by The Nature Conservancy^[6] for coral reef conservation and research. In 2003, a scientific study was published about fossilized coral that was washing up on Palmyra. This fossilized coral was examined for evidence of the behavior of the effect of El Niño on the tropical Pacific Ocean over the past 1,000 years.^[13]

In November 2005, a team of scientists joined with The Nature Conservancy to open up a new research station on Palmyra to study global warming, the disappearing coral reefs, invasive species, and other environmental concerns.^[14]

The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, including Palmyra Atoll, was established on January 6, 2009. The Secretary of the Interior has delegated the responsibility for supervising this National Monument to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.^[15]

National Wildlife Refuge[link]

On January 18, 2001, the Secretary of the Interior signed an order designating Palmyra’s tidal lands, submerged lands, and surrounding waters out to 12 nautical miles (22 km) from the water’s edge as a National Wildlife Refuge. Subsequently, the Department of the Interior published a regulation providing for the management of the refuge. 66 Fed. Reg. 7660-01 (January 24, 2001). The regulation states, in pertinent part, as follows:

"We will close the refuge to commercial fishing but will permit a low level of compatible recreational fishing for bonefishing and deep water sportfishing under programs that we will carefully manage to ensure compatibility with refuge purposes. . . . Management actions will include protection of the refuge waters and wildlife from commercial fishing activities."

In March 2003, The Nature Conservancy conveyed 416 acres (1.68 km²) of the emergent land of Palmyra to the United States to be included in the refuge. It subsequently added 28 more acres to the conveyance.

In January 2007, several parties sued the United States in the Court of Federal Claims alleging that, under the Takings Clause, the Interior Department regulation had “directly confiscated, taken, and rendered wholly and completely worthless” their purported property interests. The United States filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and the court granted the motion.^[16] On April 9, 2009, the court's decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.^[17]

As of July 2009, limited visits to the refuge are allowed, including by private recreational sailboat or motorboat. Visits must have prior approval, with access to Cooper Island arranged through the Nature Conservancy.^[18]

[edit] The Sea Wind murders

In 1974, Palmyra was the site of the double murder of a wealthy San Diego couple, Malcolm "Mac" Graham and his wife, Eleanor "Muff" Graham.^[19] The mysterious deaths, murder conviction of Duane (“Buck”) Walker (aka Wesley G. Walker) and acquittal of his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, made headlines nationwide and led to a best-selling account written by Stearns's defense attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, and Bruce B. Henderson in the true crime book And the Sea Will Tell. The book led to a CBS television miniseries by the same name starring James Brolin, Rachel Ward and Hart Bochner. The story was also depicted in The FBI Files.

Walker and Stearns were arrested in Honolulu in 1974 after returning from Palmyra aboard the Sea Wind, a yacht stolen from the Grahams. Because no bodies were found at the time, Walker and Stearns were convicted only for the yacht theft in August 1975. Six years later, a partially buried corroded chest was found in a lagoon at Palmyra, containing Eleanor Graham's remains. Walker and Stearns were arrested in Arizona for murder. In 1986 Stearns was acquitted but Walker was convicted. He served 22 years in the United States Penitentiary, Victorville, California before receiving parole in 2007. Walker died on April 26, 2010.

See also[link]

• List of Guano Island claims

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Palmyra Atoll

• Palmyra atoll
• Palmyra Island
• Palmyra Atoll NWR
• The Curse of Palmyra Island – article
• The Curse of Palmyra Island – free book
• The Nature Conservancy in Palmyra Atoll
• Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium
• United States v. Fullard-Leo (Supreme Court opinion; includes a history of the island's ownership)
• WorldStatesmen- U.S.
• History of Palmyra Atoll
• The Palmyra Gazette

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Coordinates: 5°53′N 162°5′W / 5.883°N 162.083°W / 5.883; -162.083

Palmyra ܬܕܡܘܪܬܐ
Palmyra and Temple of Baal-Shamin
Palmyra Location in Syria
Coordinates: 34°33′36″N 38°16′2″E / 34.56°N 38.26722°E / 34.56; 38.26722
Country	Syria
Governorate	Homs Governorate
District	Palmyra District
Elevation	405 m (1,329 ft)
Population (2004 census)
• Total	51,323
Area code(s)	31
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Site of Palmyra
Type:	Cultural
Criteria:	i, ii, iv
Designated:	1980 (4th session)
Reference #:	23
State Party:	Syria
Region:	Arab States

Palmyra (Aramaic: ܬܕܡܘܪܬܐ‎;Hebrew: תדמור‎; tiḏmor, Greek: Παλμύρα, Arabic: تدمر‎; Tadmur, English pronunciation: /ˌpælˈmaɪrə/) was an ancient city in central Syria. In antiquity, it was an important city located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus^[1] and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan stop for travellers crossing the Syrian desert and was known as the Bride of the Desert. The earliest documented reference to the city by its Semitic name Tadmor, Tadmur or Tudmur (which means "the town that repels" in Amorite and "the indomitable town" in Aramaic)^[2] is recorded in Babylonian tablets found in Mari.^[3]

Though the ancient site fell into disuse after the 16th century, it is still known as Tadmor^[4] in Arabic (aka Tedmor^[5]), and there is a newer town of the same name next to the ruins.^[6] The Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale monuments containing funerary art such as limestone slabs with human busts representing the deceased.

Culture[link]

Palmyrans bore Aramaic names,^[7][8] and worshipped a variety of deities from Mesopotamia (Marduk and Ruda),^[9] Syria (Hadad, Baʿal, Astarte),^[10] Arabia (Allāt) and Greece (Athena).^[11] Palmyrans were originally speakers of Aramaic but later shifted to the Greek language. At the time of the Islamic conquests Palmyra was inhabited by several Arab tribes, primarily the Qada'ah and Kalb.^[12]

History[link]

A general view of the site

Ancient[link]

The exact etymology of the name "Palmyra" is unknown, although some scholars believe it was related to the palm trees in the area. Others, however, believe it may have come from an incorrect translation of the name "Tadmor" (cf. Colledge, Seyrig, Starcky, and others). The city was first mentioned in the archives of Mari in the second millennium BC. It was a trading city in the extensive trade network that linked Mesopotamia and northern Syria. Tadmor is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Second Book of Chronicles 8:4) as a desert city built (or fortified) by the King Solomon of Judea:

There had been a temple at Palmyra for 2000 years before the Romans ever saw it. Its form, a large stone-walled chamber with columns outside, is much closer to the sort of thing attributed to Solomon than to anything Roman. It is mentioned in the Bible as part of Solomon's Kingdom. In fact, it says he built it.

—Terry Jones and Alan Ereira, Terry Jones' Barbarians, p. 183

Flavius Josephus also attributes the founding of Tadmor to Solomon in his Antiquities of the Jews (Book VIII), along with the Greek name of Palmyra, although this may be a confusion with biblical "Tamara". Several citations in the tractates of the Talmud and of the Midrash also refer to the city in the Syrian desert (sometimes interchanging the letters "d" and "t" - "Tatmor" instead of "Tadmor").

Greco-Roman periods[link]

Detail of a Parthian cavalryman escorting a camel caravan. Rubbing of a relief at Palmyra

Inscription of Queen Zenobia at Palmyra.

When the Seleucids took control of Syria in 323 BC, the city was left to itself and it became independent, flourishing as a caravan halt in the 1st century BC. In 41 BCE, Mark Antony sent a raiding party to Palmyra, but the Palmyrans had received intelligence of their approach and escaped to the other side of the Euphrates, demonstrating that at that time Palmyra was still a nomadic settlement and its valuables could be removed at short notice.^[13]

In the mid 1st century AD, Palmyra, a wealthy and elegant city located along the caravan routes linking Persia with the Mediterranean ports of Roman Syria and Phoenicia, came under Roman control. A period of great prosperity followed.

Jones and Erieira note that Palmyran merchants owned ships in Italian waters and controlled the Indian silk trade. "Palmyra became one of the richest cities of the Near East." "The Palmyrans had really pulled off a great trick, they were the only people who managed to live alongside Rome without being Romanized. They simply pretended to be Romans."

Palmyra was made part of the Roman province of Syria during the reign of Tiberius (14–37 AD). It steadily grew in importance as a trade route linking Persia, India, China, and the Roman Empire. In 129, Hadrian visited the city and was so enthralled by it that he proclaimed it a free city and renamed it Palmyra Hadriana.

Beginning in 212, Palmyra's trade diminished as the Sassanids occupied the mouth of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Septimius Odaenathus, a Prince of Palmyra, was appointed by Valerian as the governor of the province of Syria. After Valerian was captured by the Sassanids and died in captivity in Bishapur, Odaenathus campaigned as far as Ctesiphon (near modern-day Baghdad) for revenge, invading the city twice. When Odaenathus was assassinated by his nephew Maconius, his wife Septimia Zenobia took power, ruling Palmyra on the behalf of her son, Vabalathus.

Zenobia rebelled against Roman authority with the help of Cassius Longinus and took over Bosra and lands as far to the west as Egypt, establishing the short-lived Palmyrene Empire. Next, she took Antioch and large sections of Asia Minor to the north. In 272, the Roman Emperor Aurelian finally restored Roman control and Palmyra was besieged and sacked, never to recover her former glory. Aurelian captured Zenobia, bringing her back to Rome. He paraded her in golden chains in the presence of the senator Marcellus Petrus Nutenus, but allowed her to retire to a villa in Tibur, where she took an active part in society for years. A legionary fortress was established in Palmyra and although no longer an important trade center, it nevertheless remained an important junction of Roman roads in the Syrian desert.^[14]

Diocletian expanded the city to harbor even more legions and walled it in to try and save it from the Sassanid threat. The Byzantine period following the Roman Empire only resulted in the building of a few churches; much of the city went to ruin.

Islamic rule[link]

The city was captured by Muslim Arabs under Khalid ibn al-Walid in 634 but left intact. After the year 800 and the civil wars that followed the fall of the Umayyad caliphs, people started abandoning the city. At the time of the Crusades, Palmyra was under the Burid emirs of Damascus, then under Toghtekin, Mohammed the son of Shirkuh, and finally under the emirs of Homs. In 1132 the Burids had the Temple of Ba'al turned into a fortress. In the 13th century the city was handed over to the Mamluk sultan Baybars. In 1401, it was sacked by Timur, but recovered quickly, so that in the 15th century it was described as boasting "vast gardens, flourishing trades and bizarre monuments" by Ibn Fadlallah al-Omari.

In the 16th century, Qala'at ibn Maan castle was built on top of a mountain overlooking the oasis by Fakhr ad-Din al-Maan II, a Lebanese prince who tried to control the Syrian Desert. The castle was surrounded by a moat, with access only available through a drawbridge. It is possible that earlier fortifications existed on the hill well before then.

The city declined under Ottoman rule, reduced to no more than an oasis village with a small garrison. In the 17th century its location was rediscovered by Western travellers, and was studied by European and American archaeologists starting in the 19th century. The villagers who had settled in the Temple of Ba'al were dislodged in 1929 by the French authority.

Main sights[link]

The Temple of Yarchabol

The decumanus

City remains[link]

The most striking building in Palmyra is the huge temple of Ba'al, considered "the most important religious building of the first century AD in the Middle East".^[15] It originated as a Hellenistic temple, of which only fragments of stones survive. The central shrine (cella) was added in the early 1st century AD, followed by a large double colonnaded portico in Corinthian style. The west portico and the entrance (propylaeum) date from the 2nd century. The temple measures 205 x 210 m.

Starting from the temple, a colonnaded street, corresponding to the ancient decumanus, leads to the rest of the ancient city. It has a monumental arch (dating to the reign of Septimius Severus, early 3rd century AD) with rich decorations. Next were a temple of Nabu, of which little remains today apart from the podium, and the so-called baths of Diocletian.

The second most noteworthy remain in Palmyra is the theater, today with nine rows of seats, but most likely originally having up to twelve with the addition of wooden structures.^[16] It has been dated to the early 1st century AD. Behind the theater were located a small Senate building, where the local nobility discussed laws and made political decisions, and the so-called "Tariff Court", with an inscription suggesting that it was a place for caravans to make payments. Nearby is the large agora (measuring 48 x 71 m), with remains of a banquet room (triclinium); the agora's entrance was decorated with statues of Septimius Severus and his family.

The first section of the excavations ends with a largely restored tetrapylon ("four columns"), a platform with four sets of four columns (only one of the originals in Egyptian granite is still visible). A transverse street leads to Diocletian's Camp, built by the Governor of Syria, Sosianus Hierocles,^[17] with the remains of the large central principia (hall housing the legions' standards). Nearby are the temple of the Syrian goddess Allāt (2nd century AD), the Damascus Gate and the Temple of Ba'al-Shamin, erected in AD 17 and later expanded under the reign of Odenathus. Remains include a notable portico leading to the cella.

Funerary art[link]

Funerary bust of a woman. Palmyra. Mid-late 2nd century. British Museum.

Outside the ancient walls, the Palmyrenes constructed a series of large-scale funerary monuments which now form the so-called Valley of the Tombs, a 1 km long necropolis, with a series of large, richly decorated structures. These tombs, some of which were below ground, had interior walls that were cut away or constructed to form burial compartments in which the deceased, extended at full length, were placed. Limestone slabs with human busts in high relief sealed the rectangular openings of the compartments.

These reliefs represented the "personality" or "soul" of the person interred and formed part of the wall decoration inside the tomb chamber. A banquet scene depicted on this relief suggests a family tomb rather than that of an individual.

Further excavations[link]

Archaeological teams from various countries have worked on-and-off on different parts of the site. In May 2005, a Polish team excavating at the Lat temple discovered a highly-detailed stone statue of the winged goddess of victory, they also used rock to paint, they also used humans.

Recently, archaeologists in working in central Syria have unearthed the remnants of a 1,200-year-old church believed to be the largest ever discovered in Syria, at an excavation site in the ancient town of Palmyra. This church is the fourth to be discovered in Palmyra. Officials described it as the biggest of its kind to be found so far — its base measuring an impressive 47 meters by 27 meters. The church columns were estimated to be 6 meters tall, with the height of the wooden ceiling more than 15 meters. A small amphitheater was found in the church's courtyard where the experts believe some Christian rituals were practiced.^[18] In November 2010 Austrian media manager Helmut Thoma admitted to looting a Palmyrian grave, where he has stolen architectural pieces, today presented in his private living room.^[19] German and Austrian archaeologists protested against this crime.^[20][21]

Early morning panorama of Palmyra

Panorama of Palmyra

Temple of Bel

Panoramic view of the theater

Climate[link]

See also[link]

Ancient arches at Palmyra

• Tadmor Prison
• Palmyrene Empire
• Palmyra, Pennsylvania
• Palmyra, New Jersey

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Burns, Ross (1999). Monuments of Syria. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 162–175. 
• Isaac, Benjamin (2000). The Limits of Empire - the Roman Army in the East (revised ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Palmyra

• Christian Sahner, "The Temple of the Bride of the Desert," The Wall Street Journal, 27 August 2011 [1]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art - Palmyra
• Temple of Baal, Palmyra, Syria
• Palmyra. Italian-Syrian Archaeological Mission of the University of Milan
• http://i-cias.com/e.o/palmyra.htm

v t e World Heritage Sites in Syria Ancient City of Aleppo · Ancient City of Bosra · Krak des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din · Ancient City of Damascus · Palmyra · Ancient Villages of Northern Syria

v t e Homs Governorate Cities Homs al-Qusayr al-Rastan Tadmur Talkalakh Homs Governorate Towns and villages al-Akkari al-Hwash Arak Aqrab Ayfir Bir Basiri Dar al-Abid al-Sud Deir Ba'albah Fayruzah Furqlus al-Ghantoo al-Ghuntir al-Halbah Hisyah Hulayhila Huwaysis al-Jabbat Jibab Hamad Jubb al-Jarrah Jubb al-Shami Kafr Laha al-Kawm Khirbet Duwayzin Mahin Marmarita Mashrafah Mihassah Mukharram al-Fawqani al-Qadr al-Qaryatayn Qattin Qatna Ribla Sab Abar Sadad Sayyadah al-Shumariyeh Shin Shinshar al-Sukhnah Talbisa Taldou al-Tanf Tayyibah Tiyas Zaydal Zweitina

Coordinates: 34°33′36″N 38°16′2″E / 34.56°N 38.26722°E / 34.56; 38.26722