The Crops of Damascus

Ġūṭat Dimašq had largely vanished by the beginning of the twenty-first century. The following description reflects the situation of the Damascus green belt in the 1940s.

Ġūṭat Dimašq may be divided into several zones from most to least fertile:

Zone I is located north between the city and Mount Qāsīūn; 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, and asparagus) and the winter vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, beet, leek, turnip, and carrot). The urban expansion has all but annihilated this zone since the publication of this work in 1946.

Zone II: the fruit trees (mostly apricot) persist, but cereals largely replace the vegetables. Poplar trees replace apricot on the humid banks of Baradā, and hemp grows in the maximally irrigated fields. 

Zone III is less favored by irrigation than the preceding two, and subsequently olive replaces the fruit trees while cereals are still grown in between. Apricot trees are to be found exclusively around canals in this zone. 

Lastly, the periphery—al-Marǧ—extends into the Syrian Steppe. Agriculture in this zone is limited to dry farming such as vines (٧ on the map) and cereals (<), which requires only sporadic irrigation.

Jacques Weulersse. Paysans de Syrie et du Proche-Orient. Gallimard 1946.