Khabab

Khabab خبب
Village
Khabab Location in Syria
Coordinates:
Grid position	269/271 PAL
Country	Syria
Governorate	Daraa Governorate
District	Al-Sanamayn District
Nahiyah	Al-Sanamayn
Elevation	700 m (2,300 ft)
Population (2004 census)
• Total	3,379
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.chabab.sy/

Khabab (Arabic: خبب‎‎, Syriac: ܟܚܐܒܐܒ, Khababb) is a town located in southern Syria in the Hauran plain, part of the Daraa Governorate, 57 km (~36 miles) south of Damascus and about the same distance from the city of Daraa.

The old name of the town is Abiba, which in Aramaic and Syriac means a plain green grass.

History

In 1596 Khabab appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as Habab and was part of the nahiya of Bani Kilab in the Qada of Hauran. It had a Muslim population consisting of 45 households and 30 bachelors, and a Christian population consisting of 3 households and 2 bachelors. Taxes were paid on wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives.

Population

Demographics

The population inside the town is 8,000-10,000 (According to the seasons in summer most people return summer vacations) and around 40,000 who are living outside Syria, most of them are scattered between, France, USA, Canada, Brazil and Australia and a number of Arab countries.

- Population Growth: 1.01% - The proportion: Females 51%, Males 49%.

Languages

The most common language spoken is Arabic. Other languages include French and English as foreign languages.

Religion

The population of Khabab is mostly made up of Christians, in particular members of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, whose Archeparchy of Bosra–Hauran has its see in the city's cathedral of the Dormition. Other churches include of Saint Rita and Saint Michael, plus a nunnery of the Besançon Charity Sisters.

Climate

Weather in Khabab follows the southern region of Syria, a moderate with a few waves of a cold winter and relatively hot in the summer.

The climate in Khabab clearly shows the seasons sequence, summer the air tends to be heat during the day with a beautiful night with a dry breeze, and autumn begins with yellow leaves and cooler weather followed by cold winters, especially in the months of December and January and February, where spring begins with March.

Rainfall average ~250 mm (till year 2000), temperature Min, Max (-4 Winter)-(38 Summer) C temperature average (4.4 Winter)-(30 Summer) C

Economy

The people in Khabab are farmers basically (as the most of southern Syria) reliance on agriculture was the only source of livelihood. In recent years, people's dependence on agriculture has remarkably dropped down for several reasons, including:

• Dependency on rainfall and this affects the amount of the crop by the amount of rainfall and the most important rainfed crops are wheat, barley and lentils. irrigation agriculture become commonly used for vegetables as: tomatoes, watermelon, carrots, etc., and common fruit trees as: grapes, olives, almonds became an important crop.
• Most of the residents are employees in the public sector or the private sector, therefore, now monthly salary is the basic income source.
• Youth migration to the main cities, especially the capital, Damascus,and out-migration to the Gulf region or Europe or America or Australia, and the youth generation in the town are no longer interested in following in the life pattern of their parents and grandparents, concerning agriculture.
• That a number of people head to work in the areas of commercial and industrial.

Education and culture

The literacy rate at of the highest levels in Syria, to the attention of the people in education, there are a large number of distinctive competencies of the people of the village .. The school was that follow the Archdiocese and the monastery the most important reasons to encourage the education and science in khabab as well as the surrounding villages.

There are seven schools in the town, distributed as follows: kindergarten, two schools of basic education (primary) and four of middle and high stage.

There is a high number of intellectuals and teachers work in the villages and cities of the province Daraa.

Public infrastructure

Khabab have many public facilities as health clinic and a hospital under construction, a police station, a public consumer shop, and a train station.

Sources

• khabab.net
• khabab town site
• come to syria

External links

• Map of town, Google Maps
• GCatholic Melkite Catholic Dormition cathedral
• Mesmiye-map; 19M