| We at IRTOURING Offers Cultural Tours to iran , | | | | Nicator. He founded the city of Laodicea on the site, |
| Best Iran tour, iran tours, travel to iran and more | | | | one of five cities named after his mother Laodice. |
| History of Latakkia | | | | Laodicea became a main center of Greek culture and |
| The location of Latakia, the Ras Ziyarah peninsula, | | | | one of the new satrapal headquarters. It was the |
| has a long history of occupation. The Phoenician city | | | | main harbor for Apamea, linked with a road across |
| of Ramitha was located here, known to the Greeks | | | | the Nusayri mountains. Laodicaea became a major |
| as Leukê Aktê 'white coast'. Ramitha dates at | | | | port, second only to Seleucia Pieria.It formed a |
| least to the second millennium BCE and was a part of | | | | tetrapolis, with Antioch, Seleucia Pieria and Apamea |
| the kingdom of Ugarit a few miles further north. As | | | | linking the four main cities of Seleucid Syria into a |
| Ugarit declined at the end of the second millennium | | | | union known as the Syrian tetrapolis. |
| BCE, the better natural harbor facilities at Ramitha | | | | The city was described in Strabo's Geographica. |
| increased its importance. | | | | It is a city most beautifully built, has a good harbour, |
| The settlement became part of the Assyrian Empire, | | | | and has territory which, besides its other good crops, |
| later falling to the Persians, who incorporated it into | | | | abounds in wine. Now this city furnishes the most of |
| their fifth satrapy, Abar-Nahara, beyond the river. It | | | | the wine to the Alexandreians, since the whole of |
| was taken by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE | | | | the mountain that lies above the city and is |
| following his victory at Battle of Issus over the | | | | possessed by it is covered with vines almost as far |
| Persian army led by Darius III, beginning the era of | | | | as the summits. And while the summits are at a |
| Hellenism in Syria. | | | | considerable distance from Laodicea, sloping up gently |
| After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, | | | | and gradually from it, they tower above Apameia, |
| Northern Syria fell under the control of Seleucus I | | | | extending up to a perpendicular height. |