title: Oral candidiasis

text: Another term for hyperplastic candidiasis is "candidal leukoplakia". This term is a largely historical synonym for this subtype of candidiasis, rather than a true leukoplakia. Indeed, it can be clinically indistinguishable from true leukoplakia, but tissue biopsy shows candidal hyphae invading the epithelium. Some sources use this term to describe leukoplakia lesions that become colonized secondarily by "Candida" species, thereby distinguishing it from hyperplastic candidiasis. It is known that "Candida" resides more readily in mucosa that is altered, such as may occur with dysplasia and hyperkeratosis in an area of leukoplakia.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: "Candida"-associated lesions are primary oral candidiases (confined to the mouth), where the causes are thought to be multiple. For example, bacteria as well as "Candida" species may be involved in these lesions. Frequently, antifungal therapy alone does not permanently resolve these lesions, but rather the underlying predisposing factors must be addressed, in addition to treating the candidiasis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Angular cheilitis is inflammation at the corners (angles) of the mouth, very commonly involving "Candida" species, when sometimes the terms ""Candida"-associated angular cheilitis", or less commonly "monilial perlèche" are used. "Candida" organisms alone are responsible for about 20% of cases, and a mixed infection of "C. albicans" and "Staphylococcus aureus" for about 60% of cases. Signs and symptoms include soreness, erythema (redness), and fissuring of one, or more commonly both the angles of the mouth, with edema (swelling) seen intraorally on the commissures (inside the corners of the mouth). Angular cheilitis generally occurs in elderly people and is associated with denture related stomatitis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: This term refers to a mild inflammation and erythema of the mucosa beneath a denture, usually an upper denture in elderly edentulous individuals (with no natural teeth remaining). Some report that up to 65% of denture wearers have this condition to some degree. About 90% of cases are associated with "Candida" species, where sometimes the terms ""Candida"-associated denture stomatitis", or ""Candida"-associated denture-induced stomatitis" (CADIS), are used. Some sources state that this is by far the most common form of oral candidiasis. Although this condition is also known as "denture sore mouth", there is rarely any pain. "Candida" is associated with about 90% of cases of denture related stomatitis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: This is an elliptical or rhomboid lesion in the center of the dorsal tongue, just anterior (in front) of the circumvallate papillae. The area is depapillated, reddened (or red and white) and rarely painful. There is frequently "Candida" species in the lesion, sometimes mixed with bacteria.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: This is a localized or generalized, linear band of erythematous gingivitis (inflammation of the gums). It was first observed in HIV infected individuals and termed "HIV-gingivitis", but the condition is not confined to this group. "Candida" species are involved, and in some cases the lesion responds to antifungal therapy, but it is thought that other factors exist, such as oral hygiene and human herpesviruses. This condition can develop into necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: This is an uncommon form of chronic (more than one month in duration) candidal infection involving multiple areas in the mouth, without signs of candidiasis on other mucosal or cutaneous sites. The lesions are variably red and/or white. Unusually for candidal infections, there is an absence of predisposing factors such as immunosuppression, and it occurs in apparently healthy individuals, normally elderly males. Smoking is a known risk factor.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: This refers to a group of rare syndromes characterized by chronic candidal lesions on the skin, in the mouth and on other mucous membranes (i.e., a secondary oral candidiasis). These include Localized chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, diffuse mucocutaneous candidiasis (Candida granuloma), candidiasis–endocrinopathy syndrome and candidiasis thymoma syndrome. About 90% of people with chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis have candidiasis in the mouth.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Signs and symptoms are dependent upon the type of oral candidiasis. Often, apart from the appearance of the lesions, there are usually no other signs or symptoms. Most types of oral candidiasis are painless, but a burning sensation may occur in some cases. Candidiasis can, therefore, sometimes be misdiagnosed as burning mouth syndrome. A burning sensation is more likely with erythematous (atrophic) candidiasis, whilst hyperplastic candidiasis is normally entirely asymptomatic. Acute atrophic candidiasis may feel like the mouth has been scalded with a hot liquid. Another potential symptom is a metallic, acidic, salty or bitter taste in the mouth. The pseudomembranous type rarely causes any symptoms apart from possibly some discomfort or bad taste due to the presence of the membranes. Sometimes the patient describes the raised pseudomembranes as "blisters." Occasionally there can be dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), which indicates that the candidiasis involves the oropharynx or the esophagus, as well as the mouth. The trachea and the larynx may also be involved where there is oral candidiasis, and this may cause hoarseness of the voice.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The causative organism is usually "Candida albicans", or less commonly other Candida species such as (in decreasing order of frequency) "Candida tropicalis", "Candida glabrata", "Candida parapsilosis", "Candida krusei", or other species ("Candida stellatoidea", "Candida pseudotropicalis", "Candida famata", "Candida rugosa", "Candida geotrichium", "Candida dubliniensis", and "Candida guilliermondii"). "C. albicans" accounts for about 50% of oral candidiasis cases, and together "C. albicans", "C. tropicalis" and "C. glabrata" account for over 80% of cases. Candidiasis caused by non-"C. albicans" Candida (NCAC) species is associated more with immunodeficiency. For example, in HIV/AIDS, "C. dubliniensis" and "C. geotrichium" can become pathogenic.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: About 35-50% of humans possess "C. albicans" as part of their normal oral microbiota. With more sensitive detection techniques, this figure is reported to rise to 90%. This candidal carrier state is not considered a disease, since there are no lesions or symptoms of any kind. Oral carriage of "Candida" is pre-requisite for the development of oral candidiasis. For "Candida" species to colonize and survive as a normal component of the oral microbiota, the organisms must be capable of adhering to the epithelial surface of the mucous membrane lining the mouth. This adhesion involves adhesins (e.g., hyphal wall protein 1), and extracellular polymeric materials (e.g., mannoprotein). Therefore, strains of "Candida" with more adhesion capability have more pathogenic potential than other strains. The prevalence of "Candida" carriage varies with geographic location, and many other factors. Higher carriage is reported during the summer months, in females, in hospitalized individuals, in persons with blood group O and in non-secretors of blood group antigens in saliva. Increased rates of "Candida" carriage are also found in people who eat a diet high in carbohydrates, people who wear dentures, people with xerostomia (dry mouth), in people taking broad spectrum antibiotics, smokers, and in immunocompromised individuals (e.g., due to HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cancer, Down syndrome or malnutrition). Age also influences oral carriage, with the lowest levels occurring in newborns, increasing dramatically in infants, and then decreasing again in adults. Investigations have quantified oral carriage of "Candida albicans" at 300-500 colony forming units in healthy persons. More "Candida" is detected in the early morning and the late afternoon. The greatest quantity of "Candida" species are harbored on the posterior dorsal tongue, followed by the palatal and the buccal mucosae. Mucosa covered by an oral appliance such as a denture harbors significantly more candida species than uncovered mucosa.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: When "Candida" species cause lesions - the result of invasion of the host tissues - this is termed candidiasis. Some consider oral candidiasis a change in the normal oral environment rather than an exposure or true "infection" as such. The exact process by which "Candida" species switch from acting as normal oral commensals (saprophytic) state in the carrier to acting as a pathogenic organism (parasitic state) is not completely understood.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Several "Candida" species are polymorphogenic, that is, capable of growing in different forms depending on the environmental conditions. "C. albicans" can appear as a yeast form (blastospores), which is thought to be relatively harmless; and a hyphal form associated with invasion of host tissues. Apart from true hyphae, "Candida" can also form pseudohyphae — elongated filamentous cells, lined end to end. As a general rule, candidiasis presenting with white lesions is mainly caused by "Candida" species in the hyphal form and red lesions by yeast forms. "C. albicans" and "C. dubliniensis" are also capable of forming germ tubes (incipient hyphae) and chlamydospores under the right conditions. "C. albicans" is categorized serologically into A or B serotypes. The prevalence is roughly equal in healthy individuals, but type B is more prevalent in immunocompromised individuals.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Disruption to any of these local and systemic host defense mechanisms constitutes a potential susceptibility to oral candidiasis, which rarely occurs without predisposing factors. It is often described as being "a disease of the diseased", occurring in the very young, the very old, or the very sick.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Immunodeficiency is a state of reduced function of the immune system, which can be caused by medical conditions or treatments.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Acute pseudomembranous candidiasis occurs in about 5% of newborn infants. Candida species are acquired from the mother's vaginal canal during birth. At very young ages, the immune system is yet to develop fully and there is no individual immune response to candida species, an infants antibodies to the fungus are normally supplied by the mother's breast milk.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Other forms of immunodeficiency which may cause oral candidiasis include HIV/AIDS, active cancer and treatment, chemotherapy or radiotherapy.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Corticosteroid medications may contribute to the appearance of oral candidiasis, as they cause suppression of immune function either systemically or on a local/mucosal level, depending on the route of administration. Topically administered corticosteroids in the mouth may take the form of mouthwashes, dissolving lozenges or mucosal gels; sometimes being used to treat various forms of stomatitis. Systemic corticosteroids may also result in candidiasis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Inhaled corticosteroids (e.g., for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), are not intended to be administered topically in the mouth, but inevitably there is contact with the oral and oropharyngeal mucousa as it is inhaled. In asthmatics treated with inhaled steroids, clinically detectable oral candidiasis may occur in about 5-10% of adults and 1% of children. Where inhaled steroids are the cause, the candidal lesions are usually of the erythematous variety. Candidiasis appears at the sites where the steroid has contacted the mucosa, typically the dorsum of the tongue (median rhomboid glossitis) and sometimes also on the palate. Candidal lesions on both sites are sometimes termed "kissing lesions" because they approximate when the tongue is in contact with the palate.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Denture wearing and poor denture hygiene, particularly wearing the denture continually rather than removing it during sleep, is another risk factor for both candidal carriage and oral candidiasis. Dentures provide a relative acidic, moist and anaerobic environment because the mucosa covered by the denture is sheltered from oxygen and saliva. Loose, poorly fitting dentures may also cause minor trauma to the mucosa, which is thought to increase the permeability of the mucosa and increase the ability of "C. albicans" to invade the tissues. These conditions all favor the growth of "C. albicans". Sometimes dentures become very worn, or they have been constructed to allow insufficient lower facial height (occlusal vertical dimension), leading to over-closure of the mouth (an appearance sometimes described as "collapse of the jaws"). This causes deepening of the skin folds at the corners of the mouth (nasolabial crease), in effect creating intertriginous areas where another form of candidiasis, angular cheilitis, can develop. Candida species are capable of adhering to the surface of dentures, most of which are made from polymethylacrylate. They exploit micro-fissures and cracks in the surface of dentures to aid their retention. Dentures may therefore become covered in a biofilm, and act as reservoirs of infection, continually re-infecting the mucosa. For this reason, disinfecting the denture is a vital part of treatment of oral candidiasis in persons who wear dentures, as well as correcting other factors like inadequate lower facial height and fit of the dentures.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Both the quantity and quality of saliva are important oral defenses against candida. Decreased salivary flow rate or a change in the composition of saliva, collectively termed salivary hypofunction or hyposalivation is an important predisposing factor. Xerostomia is frequently listed as a cause of candidiasis, but xerostomia can be subjective or objective, i.e., a symptom present with or without actual changes in the saliva consistency or flow rate.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Malnutrition, whether by malabsorption, or poor diet, especially hematinic deficiencies (iron, vitamin B12, folic acid) can predispose to oral candidiasis, by causing diminished host defense and epithelial integrity. For example, iron deficiency anemia is thought to cause depressed cell-mediated immunity. Some sources state that deficiencies of vitamin A or pyridoxine are also linked.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: There is limited evidence that a diet high in carbohydrates predisposes to oral candidiasis. "In vitro" and studies show that Candidal growth, adhesion and biofilm formation is enhanced by the presence of carbohydrates such as glucose, galactose and sucrose.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Smoking, especially heavy smoking, is an important predisposing factor but the reasons for this relationship are unknown. One hypothesis is that cigarette smoke contains nutritional factors for "C. albicans", or that local epithelial alterations occur that facilitate colonization of candida species.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Broad-spectrum antibiotics (e.g. tetracycline) eliminate the competing bacteria and disrupt the normally balanced ecology of oral microorganisms, which can cause antibiotic-induced candidiasis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Several other factors can contribute to infection, including endocrine disorders (e.g. diabetes when poorly controlled), and/or the presence of certain other mucosal lesions, especially those that cause hyperkeratosis and/or dysplasia (e.g. lichen planus). Such changes in the mucosa predispose it to secondary infection with candidiasis. Other physical mucosal alterations are sometimes associated with candida overgrowth, such as fissured tongue (rarely), tongue piercing, atopy, and/or hospitalization.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The diagnosis can typically be made from the clinical appearance alone, but not always. As candidiasis can be variable in appearance, and present with white, red or combined white and red lesions, the differential diagnosis can be extensive. In pseudomembraneous candidiasis, the membranous slough can be wiped away to reveal an erythematous surface underneath. This is helpful in distinguishing pseudomembraneous candidiasis from other white lesions in the mouth that cannot be wiped away, such as lichen planus, oral hairy leukoplakia. Erythematous candidiasis can mimic geographic tongue. Erythematous candidiasis usually has a diffuse border that helps distinguish it from erythroplakia, which normally has a sharply defined border.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Special investigations to detect the presence of candida species include oral swabs, oral rinse or oral smears. Smears are collected by gentle scraping of the lesion with a spatula or tongue blade and the resulting debris directly applied to a glass slide. Oral swabs are taken if culture is required. Some recommend that swabs be taken from 3 different oral sites. Oral rinse involves rinsing the mouth with phosphate-buffered saline for 1 minute and then spitting the solution into a vessel that examined in a pathology laboratory. Oral rinse technique can distinguish between commensal candidal carriage and candidiasis. If candidal leukoplakia is suspected, a biopsy may be indicated. Smears and biopsies are usually stained with periodic acid-Schiff, which stains carbohydrates in fungal cell walls in magenta. Gram staining is also used as Candida stains are strongly Gram positive.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Sometimes an underlying medical condition is sought, and this may include blood tests for full blood count and hematinics.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: If a biopsy is taken, the histopathologic appearance can be variable depending upon the clinical type of candidiasis. Pseudomembranous candidiasis shows hyperplastic epithelium with a superficial parakeratotic desquamating (i.e., separating) layer. Hyphae penetrate to the depth of the stratum spinosum, and appear as weakly basophilic structures. Polymorphonuclear cells also infiltrate the epithelium, and chronic inflammatory cells infiltrate the lamina propria.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Atrophic candidiasis appears as thin, atrophic epithelium, which is non-keratinized. Hyphae are sparse, and inflammatory cell infiltration of the epithelium and the lamina propria. In essence, atrophic candidiasis appears like pseudomembranous candidiasis without the superficial desquamating layer.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Hyperplastic candidiasis is variable. Usually there is hyperplastic and acanthotic epithelium with parakeratosis. There is an inflammatory cell infiltrate and hyphae are visible. Unlike other forms of candidiasis, hyperplastic candidiasis may show dysplasia.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Oral candidiasis can be treated with topical anti-fungal drugs, such as nystatin, miconazole, Gentian violet or amphotericin B. Surgical excision of the lesions may be required in cases that do not respond to anti-fungal medications.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Underlying immunosuppression may be medically manageable once it is identified, and this helps prevent recurrence of candidal infections.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Patients who are immunocompromised, either with HIV/AIDS or as a result of chemotherapy, may require systemic prevention or treatment with oral or intravenous administered anti-fungals. However, there is strong evidence that drugs that are absorbed or partially absorbed from the GI tract can prevent candidiasis more effectively than drugs that are not absorbed in the same way.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: If candidiasis is secondary to corticosteroid or antibiotic use, then use may be stopped, although this is not always a feasible option. Candidiasis secondary to the use of inhaled steroids may be treated by rinsing out the mouth with water after taking the steroid. Use of a spacer device to reduce the contact with the oral mucosa may greatly reduce the risk of oral candidiasis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: In recurrent oral candidiasis, the use of azole antifungals risks selection and enrichment of drug-resistant strains of candida organisms. Drug resistance is increasingly more common and presents a serious problem in persons who are immunocompromised.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Prophylactic use of antifungals is sometimes employed in persons with HIV disease, during radiotherapy, during immunosuppressive or prolonged antibiotic therapy as the development of candidal infection in these groups may be more serious.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The candidal load in the mouth can be reduced by improving oral hygiene measures, such as regular toothbrushing and use of anti-microbial mouthwashes. Since smoking is associated with many of forms of oral candidiasis, cessation may be beneficial.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Good denture hygiene involves regular cleaning of the dentures, and leaving them out of the mouth during sleep. This gives the mucosa a chance to recover, while wearing a denture during sleep is often likened to sleeping in one's shoes. In oral candidiasis, the dentures may act as a reservoir of Candida species known as denture stomatitis which continually reinfects the mucosa once antifungal medication is stopped. Therefore, they must be disinfected as part of the treatment for oral candidiasis. There are commercial denture cleaner preparations for this purpose, but it is readily accomplished by soaking the denture overnight in a 1:10 solution of sodium hypochlorite (Milton, or household bleach). Bleach may corrode metal components, so if the denture contains metal, soaking it twice daily in chlorhexidine solution can be carried out instead. An alternative method of disinfection is to use a 10% solution of acetic acid (vinegar) as an overnight soak, or to microwave the dentures in 200mL water for 3 minutes at 650 watts. Microwave sterilization is only suitable if no metal components are present in the denture. Antifungal medication can also be applied to the fitting surface of the denture before it is put back in the mouth. Other problems with the dentures, such as inadequate occlusal vertical dimension may also need to be corrected in the case of angular cheilitis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The severity of oral candidiasis is subject to great variability from one person to another and in the same person from one occasion to the next. The prognosis of such infection is usually excellent after the application of topical or systemic treatments. However, oral candidiasis can be recurrent. Individuals continue to be at risk of the condition if underlying factors such as reduced salivary flow rate or immunosuppression are not rectifiable.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Candidiasis can be a marker for underlying disease, so the overall prognosis may also be dependent upon this. For example, a transient erythematous candidiasis that developed after antibiotic therapy usually resolves after antibiotics are stopped (but not always immediately), and therefore carries an excellent prognosis—but candidiasis may occasionally be a sign of more sinister undiagnosed pathology, such as HIV/AIDS or leukemia.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: It is possible for candidiasis to spread to/from the mouth, from sites such as the pharynx, esophagus, lungs, liver, anogenital region, skin or the nails. The spread of oral candidiasis to other sites usually occurs in debilitated individuals. It is also possible that candidiasis is spread by sexual contact. Rarely, a superficial candidal infection such as oral candidiasis can cause invasive candidiasis, and even prove fatal. The observation that Candida species are normally harmless commensals on the one hand, but are also occasionally capable of causing fatal invasive candidiases has led to the description "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The role of thrush in the hospital and ventilated patients is not entirely clear, however, there is a theoretical risk of positive interaction of candida with topical bacteria.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: In humans, oral candidiasis is the most common form of candidiasis, by far the most common fungal infection of the mouth, and it also represents the most common opportunistic oral infection in humans with lesions only occurring when the environment favors pathogenic behavior.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Oropharyngeal candidiasis is common during cancer care, and it is a very common oral sign in individuals with HIV. Oral candidiasis occurs in about two thirds of people with concomitant AIDS and esophageal candidiasis.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The incidence of all forms of candidiasis have increased in recent decades. This is due to developments in medicine, with more invasive medical procedures and surgeries, more widespread use of broad spectrum antibiotics and immunosuppression therapies. The HIV/AIDs global pandemic has been the greatest factor in the increased incidence of oral candidiasis since the 1980s. The incidence of candidiasis caused by NCAC species is also increasing, again thought to be due to changes in medical practise (e.g., organ transplantation and use of indwelling catheters).


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Oral candidiasis has been recognized throughout recorded history. The first description of this condition is thought to have occurred in the 4th century B.C. in "Epidemics" (a treatise that is part of the hippocratic corpus), where descriptions of what sounds like oral candidiasis are stated to occur with severe underlying disease.


title: Oral candidiasis

text: The colloquial term "thrush" refers to the resemblance of the white flecks present in some forms of candidiasis (e.g., pseudomembranous candidiasis), with the breast of the bird of the same name.<ref name="emedicine/medscape"></ref>


title: Oral candidiasis

text: Many pseudoscientific claims by proponents of alternative medicine surround the topic of candidiasis. Oral candidiasis is sometimes presented in this manner as a symptom of a widely prevalent "systemic candidiasis", "candida hypersensitivity syndrome", "yeast allergy", or "gastrointestinal candida overgrowth", which are medically unrecognized conditions. (See: Alternative medicine in Candidiasis)


title: Thorpe Park

text: Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertainments and includes rides, themed cabins, live events and "Stealth", the United Kingdom's fastest rollercoaster. In 2019 Thorpe park was the UK's third most visited theme park (1.9 million visitors), behind Alton Towers and Legoland Windsor. However, in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the park only had a 125-day operation season, along with limited capacity, leading to massively reduced visitor numbers. Despite this, Thorpe Park was the second most attended theme park in the UK in 2020, behind Alton Towers.


title: Thorpe Park

text: After demolition of the Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s, the site became a gravel pit managed by Ready Mix Concrete (RMC). When the pits were expended, RMC regenerated the site for leisure, opening Thorpe Park as an outdoor activity park in 1979. It has since grown into one of the major theme parks in the UK.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Major attractions include "Tidal Wave", a large water ride, a number of rollercoasters including "Colossus", "Nemesis Inferno", "Stealth", "Saw – The Ride", "The Swarm", "The Walking Dead: The Ride", and "Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon", a dark ride.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The demolition of the Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s saw the grounds transform into a gravel pit, originally owned by Ready Mixed Concrete Limited. When the pits were expended, RMC flooded part of the site. In 1975 the Water Ski World Championships were held on the site. RMC established a subsidiary, Leisure Sport Limited, to operate a park for water sports, leisure and heritage exhibitions, at a cost of £3 million.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The park was officially opened to the public by Lord Louis Mountbatten on 24 May 1979, his final public appearance shortly before he was assassinated by a bomb on board in a fishing boat planted by the Provisional IRA in Mullaghmore, Ireland. In addition to lakes and parkland, the park featured a replica Stone Age cave, Celtic farm, Norman castle and Viking camp as well as ancient water vehicles and aircraft.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In the early 80s, the park redeveloped into a theme park with permanent themed rides and attractions. New attractions were opened throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Space Station Zero was the park's first rollercoaster, opening in 1984. The last large attraction opened by the park's original owners was "X:\No Way Out" in 1996.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 1998, The Tussauds Group bought the park. From the outset the park started opening key attractions such as Tidal Wave in 2000, Colossus in 2002, Nemesis Inferno in 2003 and Stealth in 2006.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In May 2007, Blackstone Group purchased The Tussauds Group for US$1.9 billion and the company was merged into Merlin Entertainments, who took over operation of Thorpe Park. Dubai International Capital also gained 20% of Merlin Entertainments.


title: Thorpe Park

text: On 17 July 2007, as part of the financing for the Tussauds deal, Merlin sold Thorpe Park to private investor Nick Leslau and his investment firm Prestbury, under a sale and leaseback agreement. Although it is owned by Prestbury, the site is operated by Merlin based on a renewable 35-year lease.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The target audience for the resort is teenagers and young adults, adding rides such as Saw – The Ride and The Swarm for example. In 2014, Merlin decided to also target a more broad-family based market with new attractions such as Angry Birds Land and the park's onsite hotel.


title: Thorpe Park

text: On 20 February 2019, the official Twitter account of Thorpe Park confirmed the permanent closure of Logger's Leap, a log flume that opened in 1989 but had been closed since 2015.


title: Thorpe Park

text: On 25 February 2020, Thorpe Park announced the addition of a live action Black Mirror attraction, named Black Mirror Labyrinth, which was scheduled to open in 2020, but was postponed until 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2021, Thorpe park announced plans for a new rollercoaster in the Old Town section of the park, planned to open for the 2024 season, under the project name of Project Exodus. This ride will be the tallest ride in the UK, at a height of 236 feet (71.93 metres).


title: Thorpe Park

text: The 'Basecamp' area contains security, the turnstiles, toilets, business/staff reception and bridge where guests enter the park. This leads to 'The Dome' which acts as a hub for the park, which houses 'Vibes Bar & Kitchen' (formerly Infinity Bar & Kitchen), an arcade area, The Coffee Shack, toilets, lockers, the Island Gift Shop, guest services, first aid, photo points and staff areas (canteen, 'The Core' and offices).


title: Thorpe Park

text: The dome was previously known as 'Port Atlantis' with an underwater Atlantian themed interior. Much of the scenery and underwater effects went missing since Merlin's acquisition of the park and was removed altogether after the building's change of theme.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The Dome remains open outside park operating hours to provide entertainment and dining facilities for guests staying at Thorpe Shark Cabins, including a breakfast buffet.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Amity is set as a 1950s-era American fishing village hit by a tidal wave and opened with "Tidal Wave" in 2000. It was previously named 'Amity Cove', as still named on themed signage. The area was expanded in 2006 with "Stealth", set at 'Amity Speedway' racetrack. It later took on attractions from the former 'Neptune's Beach' family area, "Depth Charge", and "Amity Beach" outdoor water park.


title: Thorpe Park

text: It also includes attractions from the former 'European Park' area, "Flying Fish" and "Storm In A Teacup". Flying Fish was originally located beside Tidal Wave (where Stealth sits today) but was removed following construction of Stealth in 2005. It was reopened, in its present location near The Swarm, in 2007, due to popular demand. In 2011, the raft water ride "Storm Surge" was re-located from "Cypress Gardens" in Florida, USA, before it was rethemed into Legoland Florida. Storm Surge was built on the former site of the "Octopus Garden" children's area.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The area's main attractions are "Nemesis Inferno", a Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster set in a volcano, and "Rumba Rapids" a river rapids ride. The area was previously named 'Calypso Quay', the area now also includes part of the former 'Ranger County' family area, including "Mr Monkey's Banana Ride" a small swinging ship ride, as well as shopfronts and restaurants from the former 'European Park' area.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2021, "Trailers", a Fright Nights maze, opened in the building formerly housing the "I'm a Celebrity..." attraction.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Angry Birds Land opened in May 2014 and is themed to the "Angry Birds" video game. Attractions include "Angry Birds 4D" a 4D cinema, "King Pig's Wild Hog Dodgems" a dodgem ride and "" a drop tower ride.


title: Thorpe Park

text: This area is primarily the plaza for "Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon" an indoor dark ride and also contains "" an indoor rollercoaster. The area has no major themed features, other than buildings and scenery remaining from 'Octopus's Garden' (a since-closed children's area) which was later themed to Amity such as the Megastore, various buoys and a carnival game that resembles a cargo ship.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The Lost City's theme is that of the ruins of a recently unearthed Atlantean civilisation, with Colossus as the main attraction (since 2002). The area first opened in 2001 with the "Vortex" and "Zodiac" rides as the only attractions. In 2003, this area was expanded further, with the additions of "Quantum" (a magic carpet ride) and "Eclipse" (a Ferris Wheel). "Eclipse" was removed after the 2004 season (being relocated to Chessington World of Adventures); in its place, "Rush", an S&S Screamin' Swing, was opened in the 2005 season. At the end of the 2005 season, "Zodiac" was removed, and replaced with a new HUSS Enterprise (relocated from Drayton Manor, where it operated under the name "Cyclone", until it had to be closed down due to noise complaints). The replacement "Zodiac" opened (without fanfare) for the 2006 season.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The main ride in this area is "Saw - The Ride", a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter with a , 100-degree beyond vertical drop. The ride is themed to the "Saw" horror movie franchise and is set in a derelict warehouse/sawmill. A flat ride called "Samurai" was relocated from Chessington World of Adventures in 2004. The area is also home to the brand new 2021 experience "Black Mirror Labyrinth" and will be home to the planned "Project Exodus" hyper coaster. Old Town also includes a Burger King.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The area was previously named 'Canada Creek' and was the plaza for Logger's Leap, which opened in 1989 as one of the tallest log flumes in the world. It had a loose Canadian forest theme, although this has mostly been lost through redevelopments and resembles more of a Western town theme. The main attractions listed in the area sat outside the plaza. Logger's Leap ceased to operate after the 2015 season, and its permanent closure was confirmed in 2019. It also used to have the main station for the "Canada Creek Railway", a miniature railway which used to take guests to and from the (now closed) 'Thorpe Farm' area of the park, and around the backwoods of Canada Creek (after the closure of Thorpe Farm, it only traversed the backwoods of the Canada Creek area). The railway was closed during the 2008 season (and the track had to be partially rerouted due to the construction of "SAW - The Ride"), before being closed permanently at the end of the 2011 season. In the years since its closure, the trains, station, and route used by this ride were utilized by several Fright Nights attractions.


title: Thorpe Park

text: This area also was home to "Slammer", an S&S Sky Swatter. It has been standing but not operating (SBNO) since April 2017, with its permanent closure being confirmed in September 2017.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Most of the rides in this area have been closed since the start of the 2022 season, due to construction work for Project Exodus.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Swarm Island is the plaza area for "The Swarm", a Bolliger & Mabillard wing-rider rollercoaster, opened in 2012. The area was built on land reclaimed from the surrounding lakes. The area is themed as the scene of an apocalyptic disaster/alien invasion with a crashed plane, various damaged emergency vehicles like a helicopter and fire truck, a partially destroyed church (used as the ride station), and other destroyed structures. Many of the areas facilities are based within these structures, such as the ride station being housed in the church, the shop being housed in a shipping container, and the ride control room being based in an overturned police trailer wedged in the roof of the church.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In recent years, Thorpe Park has held a range of unique events such as Zombie Hunt (2018), GameFX (2019), ParkVibes (2021) and many more.


title: Thorpe Park

text: "Fright Nights", formerly "Fright Nites" is Thorpe Park's terrifying annual Halloween event and also its largest Halloween event in the UK. It is an event that has been running at Thorpe Park since 2002, celebrating Halloween with the park staying open until late at night, as well as operating a range of temporary Halloween attractions. Roaming actors in costume or with make up can also be found around the park. During Fright Nights, the park stays open until 9pm, with a range of scare mazes available for guests, who normally enter in groups of 8–10. "Face it Alone" has sometimes been available as an upcharge, where a guest enters unaccompanied and must sign a disclaimer before entering.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2013, Fright Nights was relaunched with a horror movie theme, courtesy of a three-year contract with Lionsgate. All of the pre-existing Fright Nights attractions were removed with the exception of The Asylum and SAW: Alive to make way for new horror-film themed attractions.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2014, when the Thorpe Shark Hotel opened, Thorpe Park offered two overnight scare attractions, one of which involved a 'night terror' character appearing in guests' hotel rooms during the night. The other attraction, the 'Extra Cut', involved guests being 'kidnapped' from their hotel room during the night and chased throughout the park.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2017 Fright Nights was reinvented with a Walking Dead theme. The addition of two Walking Dead attractions coincided with the season 8 premier of the show. SAW Alive, The Big Top and Platform 15 remained in operation from previous years, with Containment returning as an upcharge attraction.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2020, restrictions put into place due to the COVID-19 Pandemic meant that only two mazes operated: Platform 15 and Roots of Evil, both of which took place primarily outdoors. This led to a wide selection of scare zones introduced for the first time to Fright Nights, with The Swarm: Invasion located on Swarm Island, Creek Freaks Unchained in Old Town, The Fearstival Arena in The Dockyard, The Howling of LycanThorpe High in Lost City (on the site near Zodiac and Rush typically used for a scare maze), and Terror at Amity High returning for its third year on the Stealth Plaza. The Crows were also added as roaming actors dressed as scarecrows, based in a few main locations but found anywhere around the park, including interacting with other scare zones.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Guests can stay over on-park at the 'Thorpe Shark Cabins', comprising 90 rooms converted from shipping containers with a link to facilities in the adjacent Dome. The accommodation takes its name from its shark head entrance feature built from recycled park signage.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The hotel initially opened in 2013 as 'The Crash Pad', run by external company Snoozebox. The temporary development was purchased by the park the following year and rebranded as the Thorpe Shark Hotel.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Thorpe Park had originally been planning to build a permanent 250-bed hotel as far back as 2006. This would have been located on the opposite side of the lake, on the site of former excavation works, featuring a lakeside bar, health club and restaurant. Planning permission was granted in 2011.


title: Thorpe Park

text: The development was pitched again following the installation of 'The Crash Pad' to "test market conditions". The park received planning permission to construct the permanent hotel in 2014, with construction planned to begin in 2016 and an opening in 2018. However, the hotel was never constructed and the Shark Hotel's planning permission was extended by 10 years instead.


title: Thorpe Park

text: In 2010, the park outlined a 5-year development plan that outlined new rollercoasters for 2012, which was later realised in The Swarm. The plan outlined another rollercoaster scheduled for 2015 as well as a permanent lakeside hotel, both of which have not come to fruition. No application was ever submitted for the 2015 development and the earmarked site behind The Swarm remains undeveloped.


title: Thorpe Park

text: On 26 November 2021, the park launched a public consultation website outlining a proposal for a brand new roller coaster. Alongside this, leaflets were handed out to local residents, stating the proposal will 'involve the removal of existing old rides and replacement with a new roller coaster in the Old Town part of the resort'. The public consultation began on the 10 December 2021, with plans detailing a tall steel hyper coaster codenamed "Project Exodus". An application for planning permission was submitted on the 14th of March 2022.


title: Thorpe Park

text: Objections to the planning permission application were raised by Surrey Wildlife Trust, Natural England, and the Environment Agency; citing concerns regarding biodiversity impacts, pollution, and flood risks. The concerns raised by Surrey Wildlife Trust and Natural England were addressed, leading to their objections subsequently being withdrawn, however, the Environment Agency's concerns remained unresolved as of October 2022. On the 5th of October 2022, Runnymede Borough Council approved the application for "Project Exodus", but, due to the unresolved objection from the Environment Agency, the application had to be referred to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for approval (under the terms of The Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2021).


title: Thorpe Park

text: On the 1st of November 2022, a letter sent to Runnymede Borough Council on behalf of the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities stated that 'He is content that it should be determined by the local planning authority'. Subsequently, Runnymede Borough Council granted planning permission for "Project Exodus" on the 2nd of November 2022.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Alice Sebold (born September 6, 1963) is an American author. She is known for her novels "The Lovely Bones" and "The Almost Moon", and a memoir, "Lucky". "The Lovely Bones" was on "The New York Times" Best Seller list and was adapted into a film by the same name in 2010. Her memoir, "Lucky", sold over a million copies and describes her experience in her first year at Syracuse University, when she was raped. Anthony Broadwater, who was incorrectly identified as the perpetrator by Sebold (and via a faulty method of hair analysis), ultimately served 16 years in prison. He was exonerated in 2021, after a judge found serious issues with the original conviction.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Sebold was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in the Paoli suburb of Philadelphia, where her father taught Spanish at the University of Pennsylvania. While they were young, Sebold and her older sister, Mary, often had to take care of their mother, a journalist for a local paper, who suffered from panic attacks and drank heavily.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Sebold graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in 1980. Her father was unable to gain admission for her into the University of Pennsylvania, so Sebold attended Syracuse University instead, where she earned her bachelor's degree. Among her professors was Tess Gallagher, who became one of Sebold's confidantes. Also among her professors were Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff, and Hayden Carruth.


title: Alice Sebold

text: After graduating in 1984, she briefly attended the University of Houston in Texas, for graduate school, then moved to Manhattan for the next 10 years. She held several waitressing jobs while pursuing a writing career, but neither her poetry nor her attempts at writing a novel came to fruition.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Sebold left New York for Southern California, where she became a caretaker of an artists' colony, earning $386 a month and living in a cabin in the woods without electricity. She earned an MFA from the University of California, Irvine in 1998.


title: Alice Sebold

text: In the early hours of May 8, 1981, while Sebold was a freshman at Syracuse University, she was assaulted and raped while walking home along a pathway that passed a tunnel to an amphitheater near campus. She reported the crime to campus security and the police, who took her statement and investigated, but could not identify any suspects. Five months later, while walking down a street near the Syracuse campus, she encountered a man whom she believed to be the rapist. The man, Anthony Broadwater, ultimately served 16 years in prison, maintaining his innocence throughout. Because he would not admit to the attack, he was denied parole five times. Broadwater was released in 1999, and remained on New York's sex offender registry, before ultimately being exonerated in 2021.


title: Alice Sebold

text: After the rape, Sebold was traumatized and struggled to make sense of life for at least ten years. In 1996 or 1997, she began writing a novel about the rape and murder of an adolescent girl. The interim title was "Monsters". She found herself struggling to finish it, and abandoned several other novels she had also started. Eventually, she realized she needed to write about the rape and its impact on her first.


title: Alice Sebold

text: "Lucky" was published in 1999, in which she described every aspect of the rape in graphic detail. She used the fictitious name "Gregory Madison" for Broadwater. The title of her memoir stemmed from a conversation with a police officer who told her that another woman had been raped and murdered in the same location, and that Sebold was "lucky" because she hadn't been killed. Sebold wrote that the attack made her feel isolated from her family, and that for years afterwards, she experienced hypervigilance. She resigned her night job, fearing danger in darkness. She was depressed, suffered from nightmares, drank heavily and snorted heroin for three years. Eventually, after reading Judith Lewis Herman's "Trauma and Recovery", she realized she had developed post-traumatic stress disorder.


title: Alice Sebold

text: According to one reviewer, "Lucky" was positively reviewed and then "sank into oblivion". After Sebold became successful with her 2002 novel, "The Lovely Bones", interest in the memoir picked up and it went on to sell over one million copies.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Broadwater tried five times to have the conviction overturned, with at least as many groups of lawyers. When Timothy Mucciante began working as executive producer on a project to adapt "Lucky" to film, he noticed discrepancies in the portion of her book describing the trial. He later told "The New York Times": "I started having some doubts—not about the story that Alice told about her assault, which was tragic, but the second part of her book about the trial, which didn’t hang together". He ultimately was fired from the project when he did not provide funding as he had originally agreed, and subsequently hired a private investigator to review the evidence against Broadwater.


title: Alice Sebold

text: In November 2021, Broadwater was exonerated by a New York Supreme Court justice, who determined there had been serious issues with the original conviction. The conviction had relied heavily on two pieces of evidence: Sebold's testimony and microscopic hair analysis, a forensic technique the United States Department of Justice later found to be unreliable.


title: Alice Sebold

text: At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had identified someone other than Broadwater, she said the two men looked "almost identical". Defense attorneys arguing for Broadwater's exoneration asserted that, after the lineup, the prosecutor lied to Sebold, telling her that the man she had identified and Broadwater were friends, and that they both came to the lineup to confuse her. They also stated that Sebold wrote in "Lucky" that the prosecutor coached her into changing her identification. In 2021, Broadwater's new attorneys argued that this influenced Sebold's testimony. Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick, who joined the motion to overturn the conviction, argued that suspect identification is prone to error, particularly when the suspect is a different race from the victim; Sebold is white and Broadwater is black.


title: Alice Sebold

text: After his exoneration, Broadwater said: "I'm not bitter or have malice towards her." A week later, Sebold publicly apologized for her part in his conviction, saying she was struggling "with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail" and that Broadwater "became another young Black man brutalized by our flawed legal system. I will forever be sorry for what was done to him." Scribner, the publisher of "Lucky", released a statement following Broadwater's exoneration that distribution of all formats of the book would cease while Sebold and the publisher determined how to revise the work.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Once "Lucky" was finished, Sebold was able to complete her novel, "Monsters". She sent the manuscript to her mentor, Wilton Barnhardt, who passed it to his agent. The work was eventually published as "The Lovely Bones" in 2002. It is the story of a teenage girl who is raped and murdered at age 14. In an interview with "Publishers Weekly", Sebold said, "I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us."


title: Alice Sebold

text: A reviewer for the "Houston Chronicle" described the novel as "a disturbing story, full of horror and confusion and deep, bone-weary sadness. And yet it reflects a moving, passionate interest in and love for ordinary life at its most wonderful, and most awful, even at its most mundane." A reviewer for "The New York Times" wrote that Sebold had "the ability to capture both the ordinary and the extraordinary, the banal and the horrific, in lyrical, unsentimental prose". "The Lovely Bones" remained on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for over one year and by 2007, had sold over ten million copies worldwide.


title: Alice Sebold

text: In 2010, it was adapted into a film of the same name by Peter Jackson, starring Saoirse Ronan, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlberg, and Rachel Weisz.


title: Alice Sebold

text: Sebold's second novel, "The Almost Moon", describes an art class model who murders her mother. It begins with the sentence: “When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily” and continues a key theme of her two other books in describing acts of violence. Sebold uses the killing as the starting point from which to examine dysfunctional relationships between parents and their daughters. The book received mixed reviews.


title: Alice Sebold

text: "The Lovely Bones" won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel and the Heartland Prize in 2002, and the American Booksellers Association's Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in 2003". " Sebold held MacDowell fellowships in 2000, 2005, and 2009. In 2016, Emerson College awarded Sebold with an honorary degree.


title: Homs

text: Homs ( , , , ; / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / "Ḥomṣ" ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; ), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.


title: Homs

text: Before the Syrian Civil War, Homs was a major industrial centre, and with a population of at least 652,609 people in 2004, it was the third-largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflects Syria's general religious diversity, composed of Sunni and Alawite Muslims, and Christians. There are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a World Heritage Site.


title: Homs

text: Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st century BCE at the time of the Seleucids. It later became the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesene dynasty who gave the city its name. Originally a center of worship for the sun god El-Gabal, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century and made capital of a district that bore its current name. Throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the city's strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its economic importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, a center of Baathist resistance to the first Syrian governments. During the Syrian civil war, much of the city was devastated due to the Siege of Homs; reconstruction to affected parts of the city is underway with major reconstruction beginning in 2018.


title: Homs

text: The origin of the city's modern name is that it is an Arabic form of the city's Latin name "Emesus", derived from the Greek "Émesa" or "Émesos", or "Hémesa".


title: Homs

text: Most sources claim that the name "Emesa" in turn derived from the name of the nomadic Arab tribe known in Greek as "Emesenoi", who inhabited the region prior to Roman influence in the area. "Émesa" was shortened to "Homs" or "Hims" by its Arab inhabitants, many of whom settled there prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria.


title: Homs

text: Other sources claim that the name "Émesa" or "Hémesa" was derived from that of the Aramean city of Hamath-zobah, a combination of "Hamath" (; ; "fortress") and "Sawbah" (; "Ṣwba"; "nearness"). Thus, the name collectively means "The fortress surrounding" which refers to the Citadel of Homs and the encircling plains.


title: Homs

text: The city was subsequently referred to as ("Khémps") in Medieval Greek, and as ""la Chamelle"" (literally meaning "the female camel" in French but likely a corruption of the Arabic name according to René Dussaud) by the Crusaders (e.g. William of Tyre, "Historia", 7.12, 21.6), although they never ruled the city.


title: Homs

text: For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key agricultural market, production site and trade center for the villages of northern Syria. It has also provided security services to the hinterland of Syria, protecting it from invading forces. Excavations at the Citadel of Homs indicate that the earliest settlement at the site dates back to around 2300 BCE. Biblical scholars have identified the city with Hamath-zobah of Zobah mentioned in the Bible. In 1274 BCE, a battle took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River near Homs. It was possibly the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots.


title: Homs

text: Strabo only mentioned Arethusa in his "Geography", as a "very strong place" of the Arab Sampsigeramos and of his son Iamblikhos, "phylarchs" of the Emesene, who had allied themselves to Q. Caecilius Bassus against Caesar in 47 BC; the translators above cited have thought strange Strabo's not saying a word about Emesa. Claims have been made that Emesa was founded by Seleucus I Nicator who established the Seleucid Empire upon the death of Alexander the Great. However, according to Henri Seyrig, Emesa does not seem to have received any Greek colony and the authors' complete silence makes one think that it did not increase its visibility under the Seleucid kings. According to Henri Seyrig, it even seems that Posidonius, to whom Strabo probably referred concerning the Emesenes' phylarchs' alliance with Q. Caecilius Bassus, regarded the Emesenes as a simple tribe, governed by its sheikhs, and still devoid of a real urban existence; according to Maamoun Abdulkarim, occupation of the citadel's tell does not confirm the existence of a real urban center in the plain before the Roman period and recent excavations have refuted the existence of vestiges preceding the Roman period under the actual town's outline, and the existence of an Arab Emesene dynasty in the region, probably located in Arethusa, attests to the secondary nature of this area during the Hellenistic period. Upon Pompey's submission of the Seleucid state of Syria to the Roman Republic in 64 BCE, the Emesene dynasty were confirmed in their rule as client kings of the Romans for aiding their troops in various wars. At its greatest extent, the Arab kingdom's boundaries extended from the Bekaa Valley in the west to the border with Palmyra in the east, and from Yabrud in the south to al-Rastan (Arethusa) in the north. A marker at the Palmyrene's southwestern border was found in 1936 by Daniel Schlumberger at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, dating from the reign of Hadrian or one of his successors, which marked the boundary between Palmyrene and Emesene (Pliny the Elder asserted that both territories were contiguous); this boundary probably ran northwards to Khirbet al-Bilaas on Jabal al-Bilas where another marker, laid by Roman governor Silanus, has been found, northwest of Palmyra, probably marking a boundary with the territory of Epiphania. The kingdom of Sampsiceramus I, was the first of Rome's Arab clients on the desert fringes.


title: Homs

text: The city of Emesa grew to prominence after the new-found wealth of the Emesene dynasty, governed first by one of the sons of Sampsiceramus I, Iamblichus I who made it the kingdom's capital. The Emesene proved their loyalty to Rome once more when they aided Gaius Julius Caesar in his siege of Alexandria in 48 BC, by sending him army detachments. Subsequently, they became embroiled in the Roman Civil War between the rebelling Mark Antony and the pro-Caesar Octavian. Iamblichus I took the side of Octavian, and so upon encouragement from Antony, Iamblichus's brother Alexander usurped the throne and put Iamblichus I to death in 31 BCE. Octavian's forces prevailed in the war, however, and as a result the kingdom's throne was reverted to Iamblichus II (the son of Iamblichus I) after Alexander was executed for treason. It was in 32 that Heliopolis and the Beqaa Valley came under the kingdom's control. Relations with the Roman government grew closer when King Sohaemus inherited the kingship. Under him, Emesa sent the Roman military a regular levy of archers and assisted them in their siege of Jerusalem in 70. Sohaemus had died in 73. According to Maurice Sartre, the dynasty was very likely deprived of its kingdom, which was annexed to the Roman province of Syria, between 72 and the date of the construction of the Tomb of Sampsigeramus (78–79).


title: Homs

text: Under the Romans, Emesa began to show attributes of a Greek city-state and traces of Roman town planning still remain. Its transformation into a major city was completed under the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) when Emesa began to mint coins. By the 3rd century, it grew prosperous and well integrated into the Roman Orient. This was partly due to the marriage of Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus to a woman from a family of notables based in Emesa. According to a text of Ulpian ("Digest" 50.15.1.4) and another one of Paul ("Digest" 50.15.8.6), Caracalla and Elagabalus each promoted Emesa to the rank of a colonia and granted "ius Italicum" to it; Eugène Albertini has hypothesized about a revocation by Macrinus of the privileges given by Caracalla and a reestablishment of those by Elagabalus. Elagabalus served as the high priest at the Temple of El-Gebal, the local Arab sun god. He brought the image of this god, a conical black stone (Baetylus), to the Elagabalium in Rome.


title: Homs

text: Emesa also grew wealthy because it formed a link in the eastern trade funnelled through Palmyra; however, this dependence also caused the city's downfall when Palmyra sank to insignificance in the 4th century. Nonetheless, Emesa at this time had grown to rank with the important cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Damascus. It also continued to retain local significance, because it was the market center for the surrounding villages. The city remained a strong center of paganism, because of the Temple of El-Gabal. After one of his victories over Zenobia, Emperor Aurelian visited the city to pay thanks to the deity.


title: Homs

text: Due to the strength of the pagan sun cult in Emesa, Christians initially did not settle in the city. Eusebius writes that Silvanus, the city's first bishop, had no jurisdiction over the city, but the surrounding villages. He was executed by Emperor Julian and succeeded by Bishop Antonius—the first bishop to settle Emesa. By the 5th century, Christianity was well established under the Byzantine Empire; however, few ancient Christian inscriptions exist in Homs today. Under the Byzantines, the city became an important center for Eastern Christianity. Initially a diocese, Homs was given the status of ecclesiastical metropolis after the discovery of John the Baptist's head in a nearby cave in 452. Nemesius, who lived in the fourth or early fifth century AD, was the bishop of Emesa.


title: Homs

text: During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Emesa fell in 613 to Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.


title: Homs

text: Prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria, Arab tribes, particularly the Banu Kalb settled around Emesa, ensuring its position as an important Yamani center. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius abandoned the city—which served as his headquarters—after his army's defeat by the Rashidun Muslims under Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab during the Battle of Yarmouk in southern Syria. In 637 CE, the Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Emesa peacefully because its inhabitants agreed to pay a substantial ransom of 71,000 to 170,000 dinars. The caliph Umar established Homs as the capital of Jund Hims, a district of the province of Bilad al-Sham, encompassing the towns of Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus along the coast, Palmyra in the Syrian Desert and the territory in between, including the town of Hama. Homs was likely the first city in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population.


title: Homs

text: Later in 638, Heraclius sought help from the Christian Arab tribes who came from al-Jazira, particularly mainly from Circesium and Hīt and the tribes mustered a large army and lay siege towards Emesa. However the siege was failed as the coalition forces lose hearts and abandon the siege, by the time Iyad ibn Ghanm invaded their homeland in an effort to counter their act to lay siege toward Emesa.


title: Homs

text: The Muslims transformed half of St. John's Church into the city's Friday Mosque (Great Mosque of al-Nuri) and Homs soon became a centre of Islamic piety since some 500 companions of Muhammad settled there after its conquest. The tombs of Khalid ibn al-Walid, his son Abd al-Rahman, and Ubayd Allah, the son of Caliph Umar are located in the city. During the conflict between the Umayyads and Ali, the inhabitants of Homs allied themselves with Ali and when the latter was defeated, the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiyah hived the northern half of Jund Hims to form a separate district, Jund Qinnasrin, apparently as punishment. Ali's oratory ("mashhad 'Ali") was located in the city, and Islamic tradition claims his fingerprints are engraved on it. Despite repression by the Umayyads, Homs remained a center of Shia Islam for a while longer. As a stronghold of the Banu Kalb, the city became involved in the latter's conflicts with the Qays tribal faction. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, enjoyed the support of the Qais and subsequently razed the city walls in response to a rebellion by the Banu Kalb.


title: Homs

text: In 750, the Abbasids wrested control of Syria, including Homs, from the Umayyads, and the Arab tribes revolted. Despite the prosperity Homs experienced during this era, Abbasid rule was generally not welcomed nevertheless. During and after the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (796–809), the Abbasid authorities sent numerous punitive expeditions against Homs. Under the reign of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, in October 855, the Christian population revolted in response to additional taxation. The caliph put down the revolt by expelling Christians from the city, burning down their churches and executing members of their leadership.


title: Homs

text: With Abbasid rule over the Caliphate weakening in the mid-9th century, Homs became sought after by rebel dynasties contending for control of Syria due to the city's strategic position. Initially, the Egypt-based Tulunids came into control of it, but they were forced out by the Aleppo-based Hamdanids, who were briefly succeeded by the Qarmatians, after the latter's Turkish rebel ally Aftakin invaded northern Syria and established Homs as his base. In 891 Muslim geographer al-Yaqubi noted that Homs was situated along a broad river which served as a source of drinking water for the inhabitants. It was one of the largest cities in Syria and had several smaller districts surrounding it. In 944 the Hamdanids took definitive control of the city, dominating it until 1016. Arab geographer al-Mas'udi claimed in the early 10th century that Homs was "noted for the personal beauty of its inhabitants." In 985, al-Muqaddasi noted that Homs was the largest city in all of Syria, but it had suffered "great misfortunes" and was "threatened with ruin." He stated that when the city was conquered by the Muslims they turned half of its church into a mosque.


title: Homs

text: For around thirty years during the 10th century, Homs was raided by the Byzantines led by Nikephoros II Phokas in October 968, and its inhabitants were subject to slaughter and plunder while the city's mosque (Great Mosque of al-Nuri) was briefly restored as a church. In 974–975, John I Tzimiskes managed to control the city during his Syrian campaigns.


title: Homs

text: Throughout most of the 11th century, the Byzantine raids receded greatly and the Mirdasids of the Banu Kilab tribe ruled over Homs, replacing the Hamdanids. Inclined towards Shia Islam, they did not oppose the Shia Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt which was aiming to extend its rule into northern Syria and Iraq at the time. This precipitated a Sunni Muslim reaction led by the Saljuqid Turks who occupied Homs under the leadership of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib in 1090.


title: Homs

text: The First Crusade was launched in 1096, and in 1098, the Crusaders captured Antioch to the northwest, looted Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, and finally besieged Homs itself. Although they managed to cut the city off from its main port Tartus, they failed in taking the city. Soon after, Homs came under the control of the Saljuqid ruler of Damascus, Duqaq, who transformed it into a large, fortified camp and key fortress effectively preventing the Crusaders from penetrating deeper into Muslim territory. Immune from attack, Homs became a point where the Muslims could marshal their forces and launch raids against Crusader holdings along the Mediterranean coast. In the early 12th century, the Saljuqids engaged in internal fighting, during which Homs was often a prize. In 1149 the Mosul-based Zangids under Nur al-Din captured the city.


title: Homs

text: Muslim geographer al-Idrisi noted in 1154 that Homs was populous, had paved streets, possessed one of the largest mosques in Syria, contained open markets, and was frequented by travellers attracted to its "products and rarities of all kinds." He also reported that its residents were "pleasant; living with them is easy, and their manners are agreeable. The women are beautiful and are celebrated for their fine skin." A series of earthquakes in 1157 inflicted heavy damage upon Homs and its fortress, then in 1170, a minor quake finished off the latter. However, because of its strategic importance, being opposite of the Crusader County of Tripoli, the city and its fortifications were soon restored. In 1164, Nur al-Din awarded Homs to Asad ad-Din Shirkuh as a "iqtâ"', but reclaimed it five years later following Shirkuh's death. The latter's nephew, Saladin, occupied Homs in early December 1174, but the garrison at the citadel resisted. He later departed for Aleppo, and left a small army in Homs' lower town. The defenders of the citadel offered to set their Christian prisoners free, if Raymond III, Count of Tripoli provided military assistance for them. William of Tyre later emphasized that the commanders of the crusader army doubted if the defenders of the Homs citadel actually wanted to release their prisoners. Saladin returned to Homs soon after he was informed about the negotiations between the crusaders and the garrison. Instead of attacking him, the crusader army retreated to Krak des Chevaliers; this enabled Saladin to capture the citadel on 17 March 1175. In 1179, after reorganising his territories in northern Syria, Saladin restored Homs to his Ayyubid dynasty. Shirkuh's descendants retained Homs for nearly a century until 1262 with the death of al-Ashraf Musa. In 1225, Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned that Homs was large, celebrated and walled, having a strongly fortified castle on its southern hill.


title: Homs

text: Towards the end of Ayyubid rule, Homs remained a centrepiece of the wars between them and the Crusaders, as well as internecine conflicts with the Mongol Empire and the Mamluks. The First Battle of Homs between the Mongols and the Mamluks took place on 10 December 1260, ending in a decisive Mamluk victory. The Second Battle of Homs was fought on 29 October 1281, also ending in a Mamluk victory. The Mamluks were finally defeated in the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar, also known as the "Third Battle of Homs," in 1299.


title: Homs

text: Homs declined politically after falling to the Mamluks under Baibars because their campaigns effectively drove out the Crusaders and the Mongols from the entirety of Syria. At the beginning of the 14th century, the city was merely the capital of the smallest province of Syria and was often attached to the province of Damascus. Ibn Batuta visited Homs in 1355, writing that it had fine trees, good markets, and a "fine Friday Mosque," noting that all of its inhabitants were Arabs. Timur seized the city in 1400. Nevertheless, he did not sack it as he did in Aleppo, Hama and later Damascus, due to a man called "'Amr bin al-Rawas" who conciled with him offering precious gifts to save the city. Later in the 15th century as Mamluk weakness had brought insecurity to the countryside, Homs was ravaged by Bedouin raids; In 1510 a powerful tribe led by al-Fadl bin Nu'ayr was sent on an expedition by the governor of Damascus to loot the city markets as Homs had failed to pay compensation for his "services."


title: Homs

text: In 1516, Homs was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire and consequently suffered a greater political eclipse, but it continued to thrive as an economic center, processing the agricultural and pastoral products that flowed to it from surrounding districts. Homs was particularly well known for silk and wool weaving, especially the "alaja", which was mottled muslin run through with gold threads and used in feminine apparel. This silk was exported as far as the Ottoman capital Istanbul. In addition to weaving industries, there were olive oil presses and water mills for wheat and sesame, while grapes and rice, grown in the surrounding marshlands from the 16th century, were found in abundance in the city's markets. Moreover, the markets of Homs were the center of a trade in livestock, where flocks of sheep and goats coming from Aleppo met camels and cattle moving north from Damascus.


title: Homs

text: The coming of the Ottomans brought administrative changes to Homs, as it became the capital city of "sanjak" ("district") of Homs, attached to the "eyalet" ("province") of Tripoli—its old rival. In the late 16th century the district was ruled by emir 'Ali Harfush of the famous Shiite Harfush dynasty of the nearby Beqaa valley. Later, a French visitor noted that the city walls and citadel were in good repair, but all within was in decay and only its covered markets "retained their beauty." In 1785 French traveller, Volney wrote of the city's once great importance and its current "miserable" condition. He described it as a large, but ruined village administratively dependent on Damascus. The Ottomans did little to revitalise Homs or ensure its security against Bedouin raids. Tribal unrest throughout the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the sacking of its markets on several occasions. Security was even more hampered, when in the 18th century, the Ottomans tore down the gates of the city's walls. Around 1708, the emir Hamad al-'Abbas of the Mawali Bedouin confederation, whom the Ottomans had named "emir of the desert" ("çöl beyi") in the region, actually managed to capture the governor of Homs to hold him for ransom.


title: Homs

text: The countryside of Homs saw an increase in Bedouin raids in the first half of the 19th century, interrupted by its occupation by Muhammad Ali's Egypt led by Ibrahim Pasha between 1832 and 1840. The city rebelled against Egyptian rule and consequently, the citadel was destroyed when the Egyptians suppressed the revolt. Ottoman rule was soon restored and up to the 1860s, Homs was large enough to form a discrete economic unit of trade and processing of agricultural products from its satellite villages and the neighbouring Bedouin tribes.


title: Homs

text: The local economy was stimulated when the Ottoman government extended security to the city and its surrounding areas; new villages were established and old ones were resettled. However, Homs found itself faced with European economic competition since Ottoman rule was restored. Homs' economic importance was boosted again during the depression of the 1870s, as its cotton industry boomed due to a decline of European textile production. The quality and design of cotton goods from Homs satisfied both the lower and upper classes of the local, Ottoman, and foreign markets. There were around 5,000 looms in Homs and nearby Hama, and one British consul referred to Homs as the "Manchester of Syria."


title: Homs

text: Throughout the 20th century Homs held high political importance in the country and was home to several heads of state and other high-ranking government officials. In October 1918, it was captured by the 5th Cavalry Division of the Allied forces. During the French mandate, Homs was part of the State of Damascus. It was considered for some time to become the capital of the Syrian Federation. In Autumn 1925, the city joined Damascus and the southern Druze chieftains in a full-blown revolt against French rule. In 1932, the French moved their military academy from Damascus to Homs to be established in 1933, later known as Homs Military Academy, and it remained the only military academy in Syria until 1967. The French authorities had created a locally recruited military force designated as the Special Troops of the Levant, in which the Alawites were given privileged positions. The military academy in Homs trained the indigenous officers for these "Troupes Speciales du Levant". The Homs Military Academy played a major role in the years following Syria's independence, as many of its graduates went on to become high-ranking officers in the Syrian Army, many of them taking part in the series of coup d'états that were to follow. An important example was Hafez al-Assad who became the president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.


title: Homs

text: An oil pipeline between Tripoli and Kirkuk was built in Homs in the early 1930s and it followed an ancient caravan route between Palmyra and the Mediterranean. In 1959, an oil refinery was built to process some of this oil for domestic consumption. The city's oil refinery was bombed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.


title: Homs

text: From May 2011 – May 2014, the city was under siege by the Syrian Army and security forces. The Syrian government claims it is targeting "armed gangs" and "terrorists" in the area. According to the Syrian opposition, Homs has since become a "blighted city," where authorities regularly block deliveries of medicine, food and fuel to the inhabitants of certain districts. By June, there were near-daily confrontations between protesting residents and Syrian forces. As a result of these circumstances, there have been more deaths in Homs and its vicinity than in other areas of Syria. Homs was the first Syrian city where images of al-Assad and his family were routinely torn down or defaced and the first place where Syrian forces used artillery during the uprising. The Center for Documenting Violations in Syria claims that at least 1,770 people have been killed in Homs since the uprising began.


title: Homs

text: On 9 December 2015, under a UN-negotiated deal, the remnants of anti-government forces and their families, that had been under siege the al-Waer district for three years, began to evacuate from the city.


title: Homs

text: The Governorate of Homs is the largest in Syria. Homs, the governorate's capital, is located in central western Syria, situated along the east bank of the Orontes River in a particularly fertile area. The city is in between the southern outliers of the Coastal Mountain Range located to the west and Mount Lebanon, overlooking the Homs Gap. Because of the gap, the area around Homs receives much more rainfall and gusty winds than interior regions to its north and south. To the east of Homs, is the Syrian Desert. Lake Homs, impounded by a huge dam of Roman origins, is to the southwest, lying some south of Aleppo and south of Hama, halfway on the road between the capital Damascus and Aleppo. The Orontes River splits the city into two main sections: To the east, on a flat land lies the city center and the main neighbourhoods; to the west, lies the more recent and modern suburb of al-Waer. The city spans an area of .


title: Homs

text: Homs is located north of Damascus, south of Aleppo, south of Hama, and southeast of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast. Nearby towns and villages include al-Rayyan to the southeast, Maskanah, al-Nuqayrah, Abil and Kafr Aya to the south, al-Qusayr, Qattinah and al-Buwaydah al-Sharqiyah to the southwest, Khirbet Tin Nur to the west, al-Dar al-Kabirah to the northwest, al-Ghantu, Teir Maalah, al-Mukhtariyah and Talbiseh to the north, al-Mishirfeh to the northeast and Fairouzeh and Zaidal to the east.


title: Homs

text: The Old City is the most condensed area of Homs, and it includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Tadmur, Bab al-Dreib, Bab Hud and the immediate vicinity of the citadel, covering an area of . Little remains of the Old City; its walls and gates were demolished in the Ottoman era, but a short section of fortified wall with a circular corner tower still exists. Half a kilometre to the south, a large earth mound marks the site where the citadel once stood. To the north of the citadel lies the Christian Quarter, known as "al-Hamidiyah". This neighbourhood is one of the few areas of Homs that retains its older look, with most of the alternating black-and-white stone buildings dating from the Mamluk era. They are still used as shops and dwellings, and there has been recent renovation.


title: Homs

text: At the time of the Abbasids, Homs was known for its seven gates. They were Bab al-Souq (Gate of the Market), Bab Tadmur (Gate of Palmyra), Bab al-Dreib (or Bab al-Deir), Bab al-Sebaa (Gate of the Lions), Bab al-Turkman (Gate of the Turkmen), Bab al-Masdoud (Closed Door), and Bab Hud (The Gate of Hud). Only two gates—Bab Tadmor and Bab al-Dreib—remain today. The oldest of Homs' mosques and churches are located in the Old City.


title: Homs

text: Homs consists of several subdivisions outside the Old City. The large neighbourhood of Khaldiyah spreads along its northern edge which is bordered by Al-Bayadah and Deir Baalbah, while the more modern neighbourhoods of al-Sabil, al-Zahra Jub al-Jandali and Armenian quarter are situated to the east of the Old City. South of it are the neighbourhoods of Bab al-Sebaa, al-Mreijeh, al-Adawiyya, al-Nezha, Akrama and beyond them lay the Karm al-Loz, Karm al-Zaytoun, Wadi al-Dhahab, al-Shamas, Masaken al-Idikhar and Dahia al-Walid neighbourhoods. The modern commercial centre lies to the west in the neighbourhood of Jouret al-Shayyah, and further west are the upscale neighbourhoods of Qusoor, al-Qarabis, al-Baghtasia, al-Mahatta, al-Hamra, al-Inshaat, Karm al-Shami, al-Ghouta and Baba Amr. The suburb of al-Waer is located even further west, separated from the city by areas of farmland called al-Basatin and the Orontes River forming a green belt where it is forbidden to build anything. The Baath University complex and dormitories are located on the western-southern edge of the city next to the neighbourhood of Akrama.


title: Homs

text: Homs' location ensures that it receives softening influences and breezes from the Mediterranean. As a result, the city has a much milder climate than nearby Hama, with higher average rainfall of instead of , but it also experiences greater winds.


title: Homs

text: Homs was one of the largest cities in Syria in the 12th century with a population of 7,000. In 1785, the inhabitants of Homs numbered more than 2,000 and the population was divided almost evenly between Eastern Orthodox Christians and Muslims. The 1860s saw a rise in the population to 15,000–20,000. By 1907, Homs had roughly 65,000 inhabitants, of which two-thirds were Muslims and the remainder Christians. In the 1981 census, the population stood at 346,871, rising to 540,133 in 1994. According to the 2004 census by Syria's Central Bureau of Statistics, Homs had a population of 652,609 of which 51.5% were male and 48.5% female. In an independent 2005 estimate the city had 750,000 residents, and the population was estimated at about 823,000. Homs Governorate had an estimated 1,767,000 people in 2011.


title: Homs

text: Today, Homs' population reflects Syria's general religious diversity, and is made up primarily of Sunni Muslims (including Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen), with minorities of Alawites, Eastern Orthodox Christians and Assyrians. In addition to Catholics, Evangelists and Maronites. In the 1880s, the Survey of Western Palestine noted that there were 5,500 Greek Orthodox Christians and 1,500 Syriac Orthodox Christians. The Syriac Patriarchate was transferred to Homs from Mardin in 1933, but relocated once more to Damascus in 1959.


title: Homs

text: During the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century, about 20,000 Armenians immigrated to Homs and the surrounding villages. A small Greek community also exists in the city.


title: Homs

text: After long periods of stagnation under Ottoman rule, Homs started to flourish again in the 20th century. Its geographic and strategic location has made it a centre of agriculture and industry. The "Homs Irrigation Scheme", the first of its kind in modern Syria, brought prosperity to cultivators and the long-established enterprises involved in the processing of agricultural and pastoral products. Crops grown in Homs include wheat, barley, lentils, sugar beets, cotton, and vines, as well as serving as a point of exchange between the sedentary zone and the desert. Moreover, because of easy access to the Mediterranean, Homs has attracted overland trade from the Persian Gulf and Iraq.


title: Homs

text: Homs is also home to several large public heavy industries, such as the oil refinery west of the city which opened in 1959. A fertiliser plant was built in 1971 to process phosphates from their deposits near Palmyra; the fertiliser is for domestic consumption and export. A growing private industrial sector has flourished in the past decade and many small to medium-sized enterprises occupy the industrial zones northwest and south of the city. A new sugar refinery is being built by a Brazilian company, and an automobile plant is under construction by Iran Khodro. Also a new phosphate plant and oil refinery are being built east of the city. Homs is also the hub of an important road and rail network, it is the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.


title: Homs

text: A major industrial project was the establishment of a new industrial city in Hisyah, south of the city of Homs. Spreading across some , the city covers four main industrial sectors: textiles, food, chemical, engineering and vocational. In all, the facilities are designed to accommodate up to 66,000 workers and their families. Moreover, a free zone has been established within the city.


title: Homs

text: The hinterland of Homs is well known for its grapes which are used in Syria's liqueur industry, particularly in producing arak, nectar wine, and red wine. The city is considered a good base for day trips and excursions to the many historical and touristic sights nearby. Popular destinations include Krak des Chevaliers, Qatna, Talkalakh and Marmarita. Homs has several hotels; Safir Hotel is considered one of Syria's best five-star hotels and the only one of that status in the city. An-Nasr al-Jedid Hotel is built in a 100-year-old mansion and is labelled by tour guides as the "best budget hotel in Homs". Other hotels include Hotel al-Mimas, Ghazi Hotel, and Hotel Khayyam.


title: Homs

text: Although people in Homs eat the same foods common in Levantine cuisine, the city is well known throughout Syria for its own cuisine. A prominent dish is "Batarsh", a type of baba ghanouj made with yogurt and garlic instead of "tahini". Homs is also home to a variety of "kibbeh mishwiyyeh" or "grilled kibbeh". It consists of two pancakes of "kibbeh" stuffed with ground lamb, cooked with lamb fat and various spices. "Jazar Mahshi" ("stuffed carrot") is native dish in Homs and is made of yellow carrot stuffed with minced lamb, rice. The city specialises in cooking a type of okra meal, known as "bamya bi-l zayt" ("okra with olive oil").


title: Homs

text: Homs has an array of restaurants, some of the most highly acclaimed are those within the Safir Hotel: Mamma Mia and Mersia. The former specialises in Italian cuisine, while the latter serves Arabic food. For the local population, popular restaurants include Prince Restaurant which acts as a type of fast-food place, serving "shawarma", grilled chicken, and other common Syrian foods, as well as homemade juices. In the Old City, low-price restaurants are grouped together along Shoukri al-Quwatly Street and sell similar foods, such as hummus, falafel, various salads ("mezze"), shish kebab and chicken dishes. Restaurants and coffeehouses typically offer hookahs and are a common place for men to gather and smoke. Other notable restaurants include Broasted Kreish, a local favourite for shish taouk and shawarma on the Korniche St just south of the Ghouta; the Rawda, a garden lounge located by the New Clock Tower which is known by locals for its Homsi-style fatteh and for the atmosphere created by its divided men and family areas, providing an area for men to gather to play cards, smoke and watch soccer games and for families to have a drink and dessert on late downtime.


title: Homs

text: Homs also recently emerged as the restaurant scene in pre-civil-war Syria after completing its Malab St. Hamra development. The Hamra Street in the Malab area was home to a strip of highly rated restaurants including La Luna, a shisha lounge; Chez Moi, serving a few French dishes along with the typical local food; Mia Casa, an Italian restaurant; Troy, an American-Latin-Syrian mashup; and Quattro, another Italian restaurant.


title: Homs

text: Like in Damascus and Aleppo, many houses in the Old City of Homs have been renovated and transformed into restaurants specialising in Levantine cuisine. Most notable of these is Beit al-Agha restaurant, situated in a renovated palace that dates back to the mid-19th century with Ottoman and Mamluk architecture, and Julia Dumna Restaurant, which has been described as the best example of traditional Homsi houses, with its white and black stones.


title: Homs

text: There are two main museums in Homs, both located in the central part of the city. Qasr al-Zahrawi, a former Mamluk-era palace belonging to Ali ibn Abi al-Fadl al-Azzhari, a subordinate of Baibars, the Mamluk sultan, is now the National Folklore Museum. Outside the building is a courtyard, occupied on one side by a large terraced "liwan" with a conch shell semi-dome. In the opposite wall, there is a carving of two lions, a symbol of Baibars. The first museum built in the city, Homs Museum founded in 1922, is located along Shoukri al-Quwatly Street and contains a selection of artefacts from the Homs region, covering the time between the prehistoric and Islamic eras.


title: Homs

text: Homs has several festivals, and the city annually co-hosts the Desert Folk Festival and the Al-Badiya Festival with Palmyra. The Desert Folk Festival is an annual festival of the ancient traditions and costumes of the "Badiya" (Syrian Desert) and it includes exhibitions and concerts between Homs and Palmyra. The festival is held in the first week of May. The Al-Badiya Festival, which is held mainly in Palmyra with some events in Homs, draws approximately 60,000 tourists during the last week of May. Activities include horse, camel and car races, horse contests, music and theatre shows, antique exhibitions and a crafts market. Other festivals include the al-Nasarah Festival and the Festival of Krak des Chevaliers and the Valley. An annual festival is held at the Church of Saint Elian, attracting large numbers of pilgrims.


title: Homs

text: Homs is home to two football clubs. The Al-Karamah Sports Club was founded in 1928 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Syria. Al-Karamah is widely acclaimed on the regional and national levels, having won eight Syrian League titles, and eight Syrian Cup titles. Al-Karamah was a runner-up in the 2006 AFC Champions League. The second sports club of the city is Al-Wathba Sports Club, which was founded in 1937. The Khaled ibn al-Walid Stadium has a 35,000-person capacity and is home to both football clubs. Another stadium called Bassel al-Assad Stadium with a capacity of 25,000 was inaugurated in 2000. Homs has produced a number of well-known sportsmen, including footballers Firas Al Khatib and Jehad Al Hussain.


title: Homs

text: Culture House Theater in Homs was established in 1973. It hosts theatre plays, poetry, instrumental and musical festivals.


title: Homs

text: Homs is the capital of the Homs District, and the capital of the Homs Governorate—the largest governorate in Syria, and houses the seat of its governor, appointed by the president. The city of Homs is governed by a city council and is home to the Executive Office. The latter consists of nine elected members, in addition to the president of the city council. The Office aids the Governor in making management decisions related to the Governorate, while the city council is responsible for decisions specific to the city of Homs. It is headed by a president, Nadia Kseibi, and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the city.


title: Homs

text: The council's organizational structure is composed of the top leadership, consisting of the president, vice-president, and secretary, and the lower leadership, made up of the directors of seventeen city branches: Administrative Affairs, Finance, Technical Affairs, Health Affairs, Legal Affairs, the Fire Department, Mechanisms, Parks, Hygiene, Property, Provisional Register, Services and Maintenance, Works, IT, Planning and Statistics, Culture, and Internal Oversight Service.


title: Homs

text: The oldest schools in Homs were founded by American missionaries, the "National Evangelical School" in 1855, and "Al Ghassania Orthodox School" in 1887.


title: Homs

text: Homs is home to the Al-Baath University, one of four major universities in Syria was founded in 1979. A specialist engineering foundation, the university has one of the largest student bodies. It houses several faculties including medicine, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences and a number of two-year career (vocational) institutions.


title: Homs

text: It is the only university in the country to have departments in petroleum engineering and veterinary medicine.


title: Homs

text: The German University at Wadi al-Nasarah opened in 2004 and is located west of the city. In 2005, the International School of Choueifat opened a school outside the city. Al-Andalus University for Medical Sciences was established in 2005 near Homs, and is constructing one of its University Hospitals in the city.


title: Homs

text: There are 1,727 schools and 15,000 kindergartens in the Homs Governorate, most of which are public facilities. In 2007, 375,000 students in the governorate were enrolled in elementary schools (6–15 years), 36,000 in high schools (15–18 years), and around 12,000 in vocational training schools.


title: Homs

text: Homs is considered a transportation hub in Syria, by virtue of its central location between the coastal cities and the interior. The main bus terminal is Karnak, situated along Hama Street, north of the city centre on the outskirts. The terminal offers connections to most Syrian cities and Beirut, Lebanon. It also has international bus connections to Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. A second "luxury" bus station is located a little further north. Minibuses operate from Karnak station with destinations to Tartus, Palmyra, and Hama in northern Syria, as well as Baalbek, Tripoli, and Beirut in Lebanon. Newer microbuses that mostly travel to Hama are also based in Karnak and are mostly used for quick transportation.


title: Homs

text: Homs has a large railway station, with two Chemins de Fer Syriens operated daily departures to Damascus and Aleppo. The nearest airports are Bassel Al-Assad International Airport in Latakia to the west, Damascus International Airport to the south, Aleppo International Airport to the north, and Palmyra Airport in the Syrian Desert to the east.


title: Homs

text: Hama Street starts at the Old Clock Square in the city center and crosses Homs from south to north, where it continues along the neighbourhood of al-Khaldiyah on to the Karnak station, and turns into the Homs-Hama-Aleppo highway. Quwatli Street, named after former president Shukri al-Quwatli, is a short but vital street that connects the Old Clock Square and Quwatli Square in Downtown Homs. It branches into several smaller streets on its western end, one of which is al-Dablan Street which is the main commercial block in the city, and the other continues west to connect with the Homs-Tripoli highway. On the eastern end, al-Quwatli street continues as al-Hamidiyah Street which crosses the old Christian quarter and continues to the eastern edge of the city. The Homs-Damascus highway crosses the city from the south and reaches the city center in Quwatli Square.


title: Homs

text: The city itself is famous for its historic mosques and churches. It is also well recognised by its two public clocks standing at each end of Quwatli Street. The older one, at the eastern end facing al-Hamidiya Street, was elevated by the French in 1923, and the other one, at the western end facing al-Dablan street, is housed in the New Clock Tower which was built in 1957. Homs is well known for its historical roofed "souks". These consist of a complex maze of narrow streets and covered commercial alleys extending from the south and east from the Great Mosque towards the ancient citadel. The "souks"—lined with grocery and clothing stores, and workshops for carpenters, artisans, cobblers, metalworkers and knife-sharpeners—are busiest in the evening.


title: Homs

text: Other landmarks include the Great Mosque of al-Nuri. Originally a pagan temple dedicated to El-Gabal, it was consecrated as the Church of Saint John the Baptist under the Byzantines. Later, it was established as a Friday mosque during the Islamic Arab rule of Homs. The Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque has been considered "the only edifice of any real note" in Homs, and was built in the last few years of Ottoman rule in Syria during the 1900s. The mosque is named after early Arab general Khalid ibn al-Walid, whose tomb is located within the building.


title: Homs

text: The Um al-Zennar Church ("Church of the Virgin's Girdle") was built in 1852 atop an earlier church dating back to the 4th century, and perhaps 59 AD. The other prominent church in Homs is the 5th-century Church of Saint Elian, built in honour of Christian martyr Saint Elian, whose tomb is located in the crypt.