Mashta al-Helu (Arabic: مشتى الحلو, also known as Meshta al-Helu or Mashta al-Helo) is a town and resort in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located 35 kilometers east of Tartus. The village is located in a green wooded area amid the An-Nusayriyah Mountains, the Syrian coastal mountain range. Nearby localities include Kafrun to the west, al-Malloua and al-Bariqiyah to the southwest, Habnamrah and Marmarita to the south, Hadiya to the southeast, Kafr Ram to the east, Ayn Halaqim to the northeast, Ayn al-Shams to the north and Duraykish to the northwest.
According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Mashta al-Helu had a population of 2,458 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Mashta al-Helu nahiyah ("sub-district") of the Safita District which contained 19 localities with a collective population of 12,577 in 2004.[1] Its inhabitants are predominantly Christians.[2]
The town has an elevation of 465 meters above sea level. Prior to the Baathist takeover of the country in the 1960s, Mashta al-Helu was one of a few villages in the coastal mountain region that was electrified and connected to a grid.[3]
References
- ^ "Mashta al-Helou Nahiyah Population". Syria Central Bureau of Statistics. 2004. Archived from the original on 2013-01-12. Retrieved 2012-07-02.
- ^ Balanche, 2006, p. 44.
- ^ Balanche, 2006, p. 60.
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