Houran

Auranitis (Hauran) Plateau
سهل حوران
The village of Johfiyeh in the Jordanian part of Hauran
Geography
Satellite view of Syria and surrounding countries with position of Hauran highlighted
Location	Syria/Jordan

Auranitis (Hauran) (Arabic: حوران‎‎ / ALA-LC: Ḥawrān), also spelled Hawran, Houran and Horan, is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area and a people located in southwestern Syria and extending into the northwestern corner of Jordan.

It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning "cave land."

In geographic and geomorphic terms, it extends from near Damascus and Mount Hermon in the north to the Ajloun mountains of Jordan in the south. It includes the Golan Heights in the west and is bounded there by the Jordan Rift Valley; it also includes Jabal al-Druze in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains. The Yarmouk River drains much of the Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River.

Today, the Hauran is not a distinct political entity, but encompasses parts of the Syrian governorates of Quneitra, As Suwayda, and Daraa, and parts of the Jordanian governorates of Irbid, Ajloun and Jerash, as well as the western part of Mafraq Governorate. However, the name is used colloquially by both the inhabitants of the region (Hauranis) and outsiders, to refer to the area and its people.

The volcanic soils of Hauran make it one of the most fertile regions in Syria; it produces considerable wheat and is famous for its vineyards. The region receives above-average annual precipitation but has few rivers. Hauran relies mainly on annual snow and rain during winter and spring and many of the ancient sites contain cisterns and water storage facilities to better utilize the seasonal rainfall. The area is unlike other historical fertile areas of Syria (the Orontes and the Euphrates river valleys), which rely on controlled irrigation systems for their farming productivity. Since the mid-1980s, Syria has built a considerable number of seasonal storage dams within the headwaters of the Yarmouk River drainage basin.