Syrian Desert Corridor

The desert northeast of Palmyra contains a chain of oases including Arak and al-Sukhnah. At Arak a tunnel carried groundwater from nearby mountains, while al-Sukhnah was known for its hot spring. The geographer Yaqut described palms beside that spring in 1225; Ibn Battuta later noted the town's bathhouses. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries al-Sukhnah served as a trading centre for neighbouring villages and Bedouin tribes.