History Even before Alexander or Pompey, the town had known a procession of conquerors. It was a Phoenician village nearly a millennium before Christ but fell to the Assyrians and then the Persians. In 333 BC Alexander took it, just after the great battle with the Persians at Issus. It became a major town of the Seleucid Kingdom under Seleucus I Nicator (311 - 281 BC).

Named in honour of the mother of Seleucus, it played a vital role in Seleucid and Roman times. In addition to serving as a port, it was particularly known for its wine and was the main supplier to the Alexandrian market. By the late 2nd century, Septimius Severus declared it capital of Syria. His initiative probably resulted in a major upgrading of the city, including the building of four colonnaded main streets, embellishing the Hellenistic grid plan.
In a region subject terribly to earthquakes, however, its fabric was just as much prey to natural destructive forces as the fatigues that come from too much history. There were bad earthquakes in 494 and 555, just as it was facing a new Persian threat. Justinian, who fortified many towns in Northern Syria against the Persians, rebuilt much of Latakia. In 638, Latakia was lost to Byzantium after the Arab armies swept into Syria. After a devastating Byzantine raid in 705, it was not until 968 that they reasserted their control in the area, retaining Latakia as their southernmost port until it was retaken by the Turks in 1084.

It was taken by a Crusader fleet in 1097, but was taken back by Saladin in 1188 and remained a Muslim centre on the coast until 1260. In a gratuitous gesture, the neo-Crusaders under Peter I, returned in 1367 to sack and burn the city.
Latakia under the Ottomans became merely a dependency of Tripoli (Lebanon) or Hama. By the beginning of this century it was a small fishing village. It resumed a more prominent role under the French. Since Syrias independence, it has been steadily developed as Syrias major port.

Visit

The very consistency of its historic role has meant that its ancient remains have largely been shattered by continuous redevelopment over the centuries. One of the few surviving indications of the towns past glory is the four-sided gateway (tetraporticus). The dome within the arch is intact and is set upon an octagon which provides the transition to the rectangular base. As the sides are not quite square, the pendentives which fill the corners are irregular. The stonework and the construction are not particularly fine but the arch is clearly robust, having withstood the ravages of at least seventeen centuries since its construction in the late 2nd century, including several major earthquakes.

The Church of the Virgin lies in the suq, a smaller chapel with an icon of the Virgin believed to have miraculous properties on the right. In addition, several of Latakias mosques are worth inspecting, at least for their faچades. They include the early 13th-century Great Mosque and the New Mosque from the 18th-century, erected by Suleiman Pasha al-Azem.