Syria's highest peak, snow-capped half the year, sacred in three religions, and the source of the rivers that water the whole region.
On a clear winter morning in Damascus, look west. Above the rooftops, above the brown hills, a long white ridge hangs in the sky. That is Hermon, forty kilometers away and nearly three kilometers high, and for most of the year its snow is the only snow most Damascenes ever see.
The Arabs call it the mountain of the elder, for the white hair on its head.
It is less a single peak than a massif, a limestone ridge running twenty-five kilometers along the border with Lebanon, with its highest summit in Syrian territory. The snowmelt feeds the springs that become the Jordan River to the south and the Barada to the east, which is why a mountain most people have never heard of is the reason Damascus exists.
It appears in the Bible as the northern limit of the Promised Land and the probable site of the Transfiguration, in the Epic of Gilgamesh as the home of the gods, and in every era since as a border, a refuge, and a landmark. The Druze villages on its eastern slopes have been there for centuries.
The snowmelt feeds the Barada, the Jordan, and the springs of the Beqaa. Without it, Damascus would be desert.
Named repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible, associated with the Transfiguration in Christian tradition, and revered by the Druze of its slopes.
The Levant's highest peak, and its most reliable winter snowpack, visible from Damascus, Beirut, and the Galilee.
The border of every empire that held the region, and still a line on the map that matters.
Arna, Hina, and the Druze communities of the eastern slopes, some of the oldest continuously inhabited mountain villages in the region.
The slopes below the snow line hold a spring bloom of irises, tulips, and orchids found nowhere else in Syria.
The ridge is white from end to end. Roads to the upper villages can close after storms.
Snow retreats up the mountain, the springs run full, and the wildflowers come out below the snow line.
The only snow-free months. The villages are a cool escape from the Damascus summer.
Clear autumn air and, by late November, the first white on the summit.
The summit is off-limits. The foothills, the villages, and the views are not.
Under an hour by road to the foothill villages of Arna and Hina, via Qatana.
The lower slopes, the Druze villages, the springs, and viewpoints with the full ridge in front of you.
The summit zone and the upper border area, which require permits that are not currently issued to visitors.
Not to the summit at present; it sits in a restricted border zone. The foothills and lower slopes on the Syrian side are accessible and offer the best views of the ridge.
The developed ski area is on the far side of the border. On the Syrian side, Bloudan has a small winter sports area on the lower slopes.
Jabal al-Shaykh, from the white snow on its summit resembling an old man's white hair, or by another tradition, from a Druze religious elder who lived there.