As-Suwaydā'

Suwayda stands on the western slopes of the volcanic Hauran mountains, surrounded by fertile land and buildings of dark basalt. In antiquity the town was called Dionysias, after the god of wine, in a district long known for its vineyards. Its Roman and Byzantine remains testify to an older urban life beneath the later settlement. An Ottoman tax register of 1596 recorded it as Majdal Sawda, within the Hauran district.