Lajat

English and German Wikipedia give its area as about 900 km²; it forms a triangle between the 45 km Izra'–Shahba line in the south and the vicinity of Burraq in the north. Average elevation is 600 to 700 m, and the highest volcanic cone, just west of Shahba, reaches 1,159 m. Grey, disintegrated lava fields with jagged basalt boulders dominate; between them lie depressions (ka') with finer soil, where the villages have their fields.

Springs are scarce; water is mostly stored in cisterns, and shortages are severe in summer. Arabic Wikipedia attributes the basalt cover to eruptions of Jabal al-Arab, especially Tell Shihan.[1][2][3]

The region appears as Argob in the Hebrew Bible and as Trachonitis (“the rugged region”) in the Gospel of Luke. By 27 BCE Rome had given it to Herod the Great, who settled 3,000 Idumaeans there; after his death in 4 BCE it passed to Philip the Tetrarch, around 34 CE to the province of Syria and under Trajan to the province of Arabia. A Roman road crossed the area, and between the 1st and 4th centuries towns with theatres, colonnades and temples grew up, including Philippopolis (Shahba) and Zorava (Izra'). Building activity surged in the Byzantine period; at Zorava a martyrium of Saint George replaced the temple in 515.

The name al-Lajāʾ is first recorded in the Middle Ages; refugees from the Mongol invasions resettled the region in the 13th century. By the 17th century it was largely abandoned and used by the Sulut Bedouin for grazing. Druze settlers arrived from the late 18th century and especially after 1860, leading to fighting with the Sulut in 1868. According to Arabic Wikipedia, armed opposition groups withdrew into the Lajat in late 2011, and in March 2012 the army launched an offensive into the area.[1][2][3]

English Wikipedia counts almost twenty sites with Roman, at least thirty with Byzantine and at least thirteen with Islamic-era ruins; according to Arabic Wikipedia, French missions recorded about 700 archaeological sites between 2003 and 2007. Today Druze live in the centre and east and Muslims and Melkite Christians in villages on the western edge; most villages stand among ancient ruins.

A ministerial decree of 31 May 2006 declared the Lajat a protected area, and in May 2009 UNESCO designated it Syria's first – and, according to Arabic Wikipedia, so far only – biosphere reserve.[1][2][3][4]