Latakia

Latakia is Syria's principal port city and the capital of Latakia Governorate, on the Mediterranean coast. According to 2023 estimates its population was 709,000, making it the fifth-largest city in Syria; the total rose sharply because of internally displaced people who arrived from rebel-held areas during the Syrian Revolution. The city has been inhabited since the second millennium BC and was formally founded as a Greek city in the fourth century BC under the Seleucid Empire, when Seleucus I Nicator named it Laodikeia on the Coast in honor of his mother, Laodice. It was later ruled in turn by Romans, Byzantines, various Islamic dynasties, Crusaders, and Ottomans, and passed through a period as the French-administered Alawite State before rejoining Syria in 1944. Beyond its port, Latakia functions as a manufacturing center for the agricultural towns and villages around it. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/