The following is a sketch of Damascus' Ghouta (the immensely luxuriant oasis surrounding the city) as it appeared in the first half of the twentieth century. The credit goes to the brilliant French geographer Jacques Weulersse (link below).
The Ghouta could be divided into several zones from most to least fertile:
1. Zone I is located north between the city and Kassiun Mountain. It is dominated by an intensive agriculture of vegetables in the shadow of fruit trees. So rich is the soil that some peasants manage to reap their crops three times a year. We have the summer vegetables (tomato, zucchini, cucumber, pea, okra, eggplant, pepper, asparagus, bean) and the winter vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, beet, leek, turnip, carrot). The urban expansion has all but annihilated this zone since the publication of this work in 1946.
2. Zone II: the fruit trees (mostly apricot) persist but cereals largely replace the vegetables. Poplar trees replace apricot on the humid banks of River Barada and hemp grows in the maximally irrigated fields.
3. Zone III is less favored by irrigation than the preceding two and subsequently olive replaces the fruit tress while cereals are still grown in between. Apricot trees are to be found exclusively around canals in this zone.
4. Lastly, the periphery extends into the Syrian Steppe and agriculture is limited to dry farming such as vine and (٧ on the map) and cereals (<) requiring only sporadic irrigation.
Jacques Weulersse
Paysans de Syrie et du Proche-Orient
Copyright Librairie Gallimard 1946
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