Suwayda

Suwayda (Arabic: الباشان, romanized: Al-Bashan), also spelled Sweida, is a mainly Druze city located in southern Syria, close to the border with Jordan, with small Christian and Sunni Muslim Bedouin minorities.

It is the capital of Suwayda Governorate, one of Syria's 14 governorates, bordering Jordan in the South, Daraa Governorate in the West and Rif Dimashq Governorate in the north and east.

The city is sometimes referred to as "Little Venezuela" due to the city's influx of affluent Venezuelan Syrian immigrants. Many of them are descendants of Suwayda natives who emigrated to Venezuela in the nineteenth century; upon returning, they brought with them the Spanish language and elements of South American culture.

According to the 2004 census conducted by Syria's Central Bureau of Statistics, Suwayda had a population of 73,641.

The city was founded by the Nabataeans as Suada. It became known as Dionysias Soada (Ancient Greek: Διονῡσιάς) in the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire, for the god Dionysus, patron of wine – the city is situated in a famous ancient wine-producing region.

The name Dionysias replaced the former Nabataean name in 149 AD after Nabataean influence decreased and then concentrated towards the south, as a result of the then accelerating Hellenization of Coele-Syria.

Dionysias was a part of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, and received the rights of civitas during the reign of Commodus between 180 and 185.

Dionysus was worshipped in the same Nabatean temple dedicated to Dushara. This practice of associating the worship of local and Hellenic gods was common in Hellenistic Syria.