Suwayda

Suwayda (Arabic: ٱلسُّوَيْدَاء, romanized: as-Suwaydāʾ), also spelled Sweida, is a city located in southern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. It is a Druze-majority city, with small Christian and Sunni Muslim Bedouin minorities. It is the capital of the Suwayda Governorate, one of Syria's 14 governorates, bordering Jordan in the South, Daraa Governorate in the West and Rif Dimashq Governorate in the north and east. The city is sometimes referred to as "Little Venezuela" due to the city's influx of affluent Venezuelan Syrian immigrants. Many of them are descendants of Suwayda natives who emigrated to Venezuela in the nineteenth century; upon returning, they brought with them the Spanish language and elements of South American culture. According to the 2004 census conducted by Syria's Central Bureau of Statistics, Suwayda had a population of 73,641.