Qatana is a city in southern Syria, administratively part of the Qatana District of Rif Dimashq Governorate. Qatana has an altitude of 879 meters. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 33,996 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the Qatana Subdistrict, which contained 20 localities with a collective population of 147,451 in 2004.

History

In the early 13th-century, during Ayyubid rule, Yaqut al-Hamawi noted Katana as "one of the villages of Damascus". Tamerlane camped at Qatana during the siege of Damascus in 1400–1401; hence, the region was called as "Wadi Al-Ajam" afterwards. In 1838, it was noted as a predominantly Sunni Muslim village. In October 1947, the Syrian army began using Qatana as a training camp in preparation for a conflict in Palestine.

Geography

Climate

Qatana has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk). Rainfall is higher in winter than in summer. The average annual temperature in Qatana is 16.1 °C. About 296 mm of precipitation falls annually.