Mount al-Hass

View of Mount Ḥaṣṣ from Safīrah.

Mount Ḥaṣṣ or Mount Aḥaṣṣ (Arabic: جبل الحص or جبل الأحص‎‎; North Syrian vernacular: ǧabal əl-Ḥəṣṣ) is a 500-metre-high plateau (maximum height 638 m) on the northern fringe of the Syrian Desert. It is located in the Safīrah District of Aleppo Governorate in Syria.

Location and description

The plateau extends for 60 km with a width of about 30 km on the western side of Lake Jabboul from Safīrah in the north to Sabkhat Kharāyij and Sabkhat Ḥammām in the south. To the east lie the Qinnasrīn plain (southern Aleppo plain) and the Maṭkh lowland. A lesser elevation called Mount Shabīth (Arabic: جبل شبيث‎‎) (highest point 360 m) is found in the southeast, beyond which lie Sabkhat Shabīth. The plain of Khunāṣir separates between Mount Ḥaṣṣ and Mount Shabīth.^[1]

The area has more than 150 villages inhabited by Bedouins or people of Bedouinic ancestry. It is one of the poorest in Syria. A development project has been going on to improve living standards.^[2]

An ancient fortress from the classical period has been recently uncovered on Mount Ḥaṣṣ.^[3]

References