Homs

Homs (hômz, hôms) or Hims (hĭms), city (1995 est. pop. 455,000), capital of Homs governorate, W central Syria, on the Orontes River. It is a commercial center located in a fertile plain where wheat, grapes, fruit, and vegetables are grown. Manufactures include refined petroleum, flour, fertilizer, processed foods, handicrafts, and silk, cotton, and woolen textiles. The city is a road and rail junction and has an oil refinery. In ancient times Homs, then called Emesa, was the site of a great temple to Baal (or Helios-Baal), the sungod. Emesa came into startling prominence in the early 3d cent. A.D. when a priest of the temple became Roman emperor as Heliogabalus, or Elagabalus. Aurelian defeated the forces of Zenobia of Palmyra there in 272. The Arabs took the town in 636, renaming it Homs. The Arab soldier Khalid died there in 642; a shrine and mosque in his honor were erected in 1908. Homs was part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th cent. until after World War I, when it became part of the French League of Nations mandate. The city has a university.

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Hims

 or Homs ancient Emesa

City (pop., 2004 est.: 800,400), central Syria. It is located near the Orontes River. As Emesa, it contained a large temple to the sun god El Gebal and was the birthplace of the priest-king Elagabalus, who became Roman emperor in AD 218. The emperor Aurelian defeated Queen Zenobia of Palmyra there in 272. It was taken in 636 by the Muslims, who renamed it Hims. In 1516 it passed into Ottoman hands, where it remained (except for a brief period of Egyptian control in the 1830s) until the creation of Syria after World War I (1914–18). Hims is a thriving agricultural market centre and has oil and sugar refineries. It is the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean Sea coast.

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Homs, Hums

a city in W Syria, near the Orontes River: important in Roman times as the capital of Phoenicia-Lebanesia. Pop.: 915 000 (2005 est.)

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Homs 

(also Hims), a city in western Syria, in the valley of the el-Asi River; administrative center of Hims Province. Population, 215,500 (1970). Horns, a railroad and highway junction, produces oil, mineral fertilizers, cement, textiles, and food products, including canned foods and dairy products. Petroleum pipelines from Iraq and the Karachuk oil fields in Syria pass through Horns on their way to the ports of Tartus and Baniyas. Petroleum products go by pipelines from Horns to Damascus, Aleppo, and Lata-kia. Fruits, grain, and animal products are also traded in Horns.