Deir ez-Zor Governorate

Deir ez-Zor Governorate (Arabic: مُحافظة دير الزور‎ / ALA-LC: Muḥāfaẓat Dayr az-Zawr) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is situated in eastern Syria, bordering Iraq. It has an area of 33,060 km² and a population of 1,202,000 (2010 estimate). The capital is Deir ez-Zor.

Districts

The governorate is divided into 3 districts (manatiq):

These are further divided into 14 sub-districts (nawahi).

History

Deir ez-Zor was the location of Israel's execution of Operation Orchard on September 6, 2007. Israel bombed a northern Syrian complex suspected of holding nuclear materials from North Korea.

In 2014 Islamic State forces massacred an estimated 900 members of the Al-Shaitat tribe in the governorate, following resistance to the Islamic State's occupation of the area.

See also

References

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Deir ez-Zor

Coordinates: 35°20′N 40°9′E / 35.333°N 40.150°E / 35.333; 40.150

Deir ez-Zor, also spelled Deir Ezzor, Deir Al-Zor, Deir-al-Zour,Dayr al-Zawr,Der Ezzor and other variants (Arabic: دير الزور‎; Syriac: ܕܝܪܐ ܙܥܘܪܬܐ, Armenian: Տէր Զօր, Դեր Զոր, Der Zor), is the seventh largest city in Syria and the largest in the eastern part of Syria. Located 450 km (280 mi) to the northeast from the capital Damascus on the shores of Euphrates River, Deir ez-Zor is the capital of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. According to the 2004 official census, 211,857 people were residing in the city that year.

Names

Among Syrians and neighbouring regions, Ad-Deir is used for short to indicate Deir ez Zor. The current name, which has been extended to the surrounding region, indicates an ancient site for one of the Early Christian secluded monasteries spread since the persecution times and Apostolic Age throughout Mesopotamia. Although Deir, which is Arabic for "monastery", thought to be kept throughout Medieval and Modern Age renaming, Zor, which indicates the riverbank bush, appeared only in some late Ottoman records.