What is Latakia famous for?

Latakia is known as Syria's main port and the centre of its coast, and for the sea and the climate that come with it. After the dry heat inland this is another Syria: humid, green, facing the water — the corniche in the late afternoon, and the Roman columns downtown from the years the city went by the name Laodicea. What surrounds it is named as often as the city itself: the pine forests of Kessab to the north, and Ugarit to the south, the mound where some of the earliest alphabetic writing was found.