Al-Nabek

Al-Nabek or An-Nabek (Arabic: النبك, romanized: an-Nabk) is a Syrian city administratively belonging to Rif Dimashq and the capital of the Qalamoun. It is located 81 kilometers (50 mi) north of Damascus and south of Homs and has an altitude of 1,255 meters (4,117 ft). According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), An-Nabek had a population of 32,548 in the 2004 census. The Monastery of St. Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi) is located along the Anti-Lebanon Mountains near Nabek and dates back to at least the 6th century. In the mid-19th century, the population was recorded as consisting mostly of Sunni Muslims, Syriac Catholic and Melkite Catholic Christians. In the mid-1940s, its 6,000 inhabitants were noted to be Sunni Muslims.