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Ruins of Arethusa
Remains of Hellenistic and Roman columns and foundations scattered across the north of the town and its farmland, dating to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC — testimony to the city's great age.
From Hellenistic Arethusa to modern Alrastan — twenty-three centuries of continuous history
Seleucus I Nicator — one of Alexander the Great's generals — founded the city of Arethusa on the western bank of the Orontes; it was one of the four Seleucid cities of central Syria. The Syriac name «Arastan» still echoes among the locals to this day.
Arethusa was one of the first capitals of the Emesene kingdom in central Syria, under Roman influence. The phylarch Sampsiceramus I ruled here until a rival seized the city; the Roman general Pompey annexed it in 64 BC, making it part of the Roman province of Syria.
The city reached its peak in Roman times; public buildings, temples and markets were raised. Scholars — among them Kamel Shehade — have shown that, before the rise of Homs, Arethusa was the region's sole principal city among the foundations of Seleucus Nicator. A 3rd-century Roman sarcophagus, today in the National Museum of Damascus, still bears witness to this era.
Under the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, the commander Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah took the city of Rastan in 634 AD, and it came under the care of the nascent Islamic state. The conquest brought a gradual demographic and urban shift; little by little the city's Arabic names replaced the Hellenistic one.
In 945 AD the land of Rastan saw a decisive battle: Sayf al-Dawla the Hamdanid defeated the Ikhshidid army under Kafur before marching victorious on Damascus. This victory gave the city strategic importance on the main road between Homs, Hama and beyond.
At the start of the twelfth century the city went through the upheavals of the Crusades, contested by several powers. The citadel overlooking the Orontes was refortified to defend the strategic trade route linking inland Syria to its Lebanese coast.
Following the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, Alrastan was annexed to the Ottoman Empire and became a nahiya (sub-district) of the Homs district in the Vilayet of Damascus, later in the Vilayet of Syria after the later administrative reforms. Throughout this long era the city preserved its agricultural character and its stone-built fabric on the bank of the Orontes.
Source: Abd al-Rahman Ayyub, «Ar-Rastan — A Historical Study Through the Ages», Dar Talas for Studies, Translation and Publishing, Damascus, 1st ed. 1991.During the French Mandate, archaeological surveys and geographic mapping were carried out in the city and its surroundings, foremost the famous aerial survey of 1934–1939 that documented the Hellenistic and Roman ruins of Arethusa. The inhabitants continued to preserve the city's stone-built identity.
The Syrian government built the Rastan Dam on the Orontes — a storage dam with a capacity of 225 million cubic metres, used to irrigate farmland and generate electricity. The dam marked a turning point in the city's economy and placed Rastan on the map of national development projects.
Before the Roman era there was no Homs; Rastan alone was the region's principal city among those founded by Seleucus Nicator.
Remains of Hellenistic and Roman columns and foundations scattered across the north of the town and its farmland, dating to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC — testimony to the city's great age.
An old fortress on a height overlooking the historic trade route between Homs and Hama. Seleucids, Romans, Arabs and Crusaders fortified it in turn.
A finely carved Roman sarcophagus from the 3rd century AD, discovered in the lands of Rastan and today kept in the National Museum of Damascus.
Not an ancient relic but a hugely consequential modern landmark: a storage dam on the Orontes with a 225 million m³ capacity that transformed the farming economy of an entire region.
The book «Ar-Rastan — A Historical Study Through the Ages» by Abd al-Rahman Ayyub (Dar Talas, 1991) is the foundational reference for the city's history.
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