Mhardeh

A town 23 kilometres north-west of Hama, along the Orontes and at the edge of the Ghab plain. Its people are mostly Greek Orthodox; together with al-Suqaylabiyah and Kafr Buhum it is one of the few Arab Orthodox localities in the Hama region. The 2004 census counted 17578 people, and an estimate for 2010 put it at 22442.

Getting there

Half an hour north-west of Hama. Halfaya and Taybat al-Imam lie to the east, Maarzaf to the south, Shayzar and Safsafiyah to the west. The town was formally recognised as a city in 1975 and made the capital of Mahardah District.

How long it takes

An hour and a half. The town itself is quick; the day is really built around Shayzar castle.

What to see

What Mhardeh offers is a settlement that kept going rather than a monument. Christian remains in the town speak to how old that presence is, and its people trace their descent to the Ghassanids, an Arab Christian tribe of the Byzantine era. In the 16th century Mhardeh was the seat of a metropolitanate covering the Christian villages between Hama and Homs; that see was dissolved in 1596 or 1597 and the town was assigned to Hama. The date the Church of Saint George in the town was built is not known; its oldest manuscript is from the late 19th century.

What most visitors miss

The old multi-arched stone bridge over the Orontes. The arches run on at one end while traffic crosses a repaired deck at the other, and the ground under the piers is grassed over. The river was dammed three kilometres north: the Mahardah Dam was built between 1957 and 1963 and generates power. By the 1980s people in Hama were calling the town “little Paris” for the range of its shops and the air of the place.

Where things stand

Mhardeh stayed under government control through the war but was attacked: 97 civilians were killed in the town between 2011 and 2018. The town functions today and its market is open.