Jeiroud … the Town of High Plateaus Rich in Natural Resources

The city of “Jeiroud” is located in the governorate of Damascus Countryside. It is at 835 meters above sea level. The city is located in the north-east of «al -Qataifah» city in the low eastern plateau of the Qalamoun area. A wide valley runs through it, and to the east there is an area known as ” the Saltcellar of Jeiroud.” The site is surrounded by archaeological sites dating back to prehistoric times.

The ancient town dates back to the Aramaic time and was mentioned in the Roman and Byzantine eras and it was also mentioned in Al Asfahani’s book (“Al -Aghani”) and al -Hamawi Lexicon in the name of «Jroud». The discovered antiquities in the area indicate that the start of the human dates back to the period from 12 to 10 thousand years BC.

The results of some studies of one of the  archaeological finds discovered is a (handmill) to confirm that the people knew agriculture since the sixth millennium BC, an ancient pottery canal also was discovered extending from the south to the north.

The origin of the name “Jairoud” has a lot of interpretations, including what return to Assyrian Arabic or to the Syriac origin, where Syriac translates the word “Jairoud” into two parts “Jei” means “low” and “roud” means the “group” to become the meaning of the name “low group” that settled on the banks of Jeiroud Lake. It is said that the name comes from the word “barren” and means in Arabic the place that not producing fruit or seeds with wide high plateaus that is suitable for grazing. This name was given to this region during the Islamic conquest and then changed to become « Jeiroud ».The people in this area works in agriculture, raising livestock, poultry, practicing some simple handicrafts and the industry of gypsum extracted from the mine located south of saltcellar, where it has a medical gypsum production plant and a Meteorological Station.

Sh. Kh.