Safita

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Safita (Arabic: صَافِيتَا Ṣāfītā; Phoenician: 𐤎‬𐤐𐤕‬𐤄, Sōpūte) is a city in the Tartus Governorate, western Syria, located to the southeast of Tartus and to the northwest of Krak des Chevaliers. It is situated on the tops of three hills and the valleys between them, in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Safita had a population of 20,301 in the 2004 census. It has a religiously mixed population of mostly Greek Orthodox Christians and Alawites. The Crusader-built fortress of Chastel Blanc in Safita enabled the city to historically dominate the surrounding region. Safita served as the center of a large rural district throughout Ottoman rule (1517–1918). Its influence receded with the administrative rise and economic development of the nearby port town of Tartus and the dimunition of its jurisdiction beginning under French Mandatory rule (1923–1946) and continuing post-Syrian independence. Safita shares close economic ties with Tartus, as well as having business networks extending across Syria's major cities and Lebanon. It remains an economic hub for the surrounding countryside.