Ghouta

Ghuta (Arabic غوطة دمشق, DMG Ġūṭat Dimašq ), also Ghouta, is one of the largest irrigation oases of the Middle East, extending from the Syrian capital Damascus to the west, south and east. To the north it ends at the steep drop in the low vegetation, Jabal Qāsiyūn. The oasis is mainly fed by two rivers, Barada and Nahr el- Awadsch which are used for artificial irrigation and drinking water supplies.

The Ghuta with tree groves and vegetable fields divided ring from its center to the edges, in the east it goes after a Merj mentioned treeless zone with rainfed agriculture into the Syrian desert. By getting in the suburbs uncontrolled sprawling city the Ghuta is pushed further and further.

In the Bronze Age the Ghuta might have been a sparsely inhabited forest and marshland, was led by the irrigation water in the border areas, where presumably were agricultural settlements. These had to be defended to the outside through a series of hill forts. These included Tell es - Ṣaliḥiyeh in the east and the smaller fortified settlement Deir Khabiye in the south. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC, it was started to develop the present center of Ghuta by irrigation canals. Damascus became the capital of the settlements. In the Middle Ages nomads took advantage of the now uninhabited border areas as pasture, mid-19th century grew settlement areas and arable land back into the Merj and beyond.