Talk:Latakia

Latakia was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
August 24, 2009	Good article nominee	Listed
November 22, 2014	Good article reassessment	Delisted

Current status: Delisted good article

Syria Top‑importance

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Cities

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Phoenicia Low‑importance

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Pronunciation?[edit]

Yes, how do we say it in ENGLISH? Which syllable is stressed? 2nd or 3rd?

Untitled[edit]

According to Microsoft Word, "refounded" is not a word.

The site, on the Ras Ziyarah peninsula, has been occupied for a long time. The Phoenicians had a city here named Ramitha, and to the Greeks it was Leuke Akte, then it was refounded and named Laodicea by Seleucus I Nicator, after his mother. It became an important port and an exporter of wine produced in the hills behind the city (Strabo 16.2.9). An arch from the time of Septimius Severus has survived.

Rebuild? Founded again? Something else?

[EDIT] - Ahh got it, edited it to re-founded, just needs a hyphen.

Unsourced statement about Alawization by Hafez al Asaad[edit]

"Latakia was historically a Sunni city, however the Alawatization process under Hafez al Asaad led to many Alawites moving from the rural hinterland into the city." Sounds like a serious charge/statement against a polital opponent should at least have a good source for that? Presuming the claim is undisputed. 83.84.100.133 (talk) 18:22, 12 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation?[edit]

Could we have some help here how to pronounce Latakia in English -- the city and the tobacco (if different)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.237.249.175 (talk) 12:57, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Photos[edit]

Do we really need two photos of the arch right next to each other? Maybe some of the photos could moved down to a gallery section... AnonMoos 13:58, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To-do list[edit]

Done - Expand "Etymology" section.
Expand the "Ancient settlement and founding" and "Modern era" sections by just a passage more of info. They're all satisfactory right now, but a little more info would be even more helpful.
Done - Start a Geography section with info about what Latakia is situated on and its immediate surroundings.
Latakia doesn't have an "Old City", but something on the city center, subdivisions, etc. should be mentioned in a subsection.
Done - Start a Climate subsection with a table, as standard.
Done - Start a "Sports" subsection.
Start a "Museums" subsection.
Slightly expand "Economy" section.
Find the recent-most population of Latakia. (Lonely Planet says 354,000 in 2008, but this is pretty much the same as the 1994 estimate. We got 402,000 from 2002.)
Start a section on the local government.
Mention the current mayor of the city.
If there is any other cultural aspect of the city worthy of note, it should be mentioned in the article.
Create an informative, but concise lead.

--Al Ameer son (talk) 04:43, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editing questions:

Throughout the article, we need to choose whether to use "October War of 1973" or "Yom Kippur War" for the name of the conflict.

--More to be posted later, if found. Spencer^{T♦Nominate!} 21:54, 11 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Etymology[edit]

The Seleucid dynasty of Macedonian-Greek rulers had four "dynastic" names which they used to name almost all the cities which they founded or re-founded or significantly changed the institutions of: Antiokheia (Antioch), Seleuceia, Laodicea, and Apamea (even Jerusalem was called "Antioch" by some for a time). Not sure there's too much more to say... AnonMoos (talk) 08:01, 2 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Population[edit]

I haven't seen any sources list the population in the 500,000s. This book lists a population of 400,000[1], as does this one[2]. Lonely Planet says 354,000[3] Which one are we using for the current population? --Al Ameer son (talk) 01:26, 13 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review[edit]

This review is transcluded from Talk:Latakia/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Starting review. Pyrotec (talk) 16:57, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Initial comments[edit]

On a quick read through, this article appears to be at or about GA-level. I'll therefore continue the review, going through the article section by section, but leaving the WP:Lead until last. Pyrotec (talk) 18:26, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Overall summary[edit]

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

A wide-ranging, well-illustrated article, of GA-standard.

Is it reasonably well written?
A. Prose quality:

B. MoS compliance:
Is it factually accurate and verifiable?
A. References to sources:

B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

C. No original research:
Is it broad in its coverage?
A. Major aspects:

B. Focused:
Is it neutral?
Fair representation without bias:
Is it stable?
No edit wars, etc:
Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?
A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:
Overall:
Pass or Fail:

A good Good-Article. Congratulations on the quality of the article. Its now a GA.Pyrotec (talk) 21:18, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, I'll tell Yazan and Spencer the good news. Thanks for the review! --Al Ameer son (talk) 21:36, 24 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

news[edit]

it's under attack going on right now. --Ujaj35 (talk) 15:38, 15 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

File:Post card of a group of Alawite musicians from North-Western Syria, (1920's). .jpg Nominated for Deletion[edit]

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Russian spy facility[edit]

"Latakia is the home of Russia's largest foreign electronic eavesdropping facility". What's the name of this base? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:33, 6 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Possible copyright problem[edit]

This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Mkativerata (talk) 09:57, 22 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's a shame this article had to be slaughtered. I'm going to begin reinstating information that was deleted as a result of the copy-vio in line with our copyright guidelines. Please verify as needed. --Al Ameer (talk) 20:45, 17 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Timeline of Latakia[edit]

What is missing from the recently created city timeline article? Please add relevant content! Contributions welcome. Thank you. -- M2545 (talk) 16:52, 17 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Merger proposal[edit]

I propose that Laodicea in Syria be merged into Latakia. This is the same city (not a separate archaeological site), also called Laodicea ad Mare under the Seleucids, and habitation in that area has been continuous. It makes little sense to fork out each history epoch into its own stub. The information could be added to the history section of the current article. Yazan (talk) 20:49, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There are many cases where we have separate articles for the same city in the two periods: Berytus/Beirut, Londinium/London, Mediolanum/Milan, Jicheng (Beijing)/Yanjing/Dadu/Beijing, Batavia, Dutch East Indies/Jakarta, Tenochtitlan/Mexico City. In other cases, the content is divided differently: Rome/History of Rome, Trier/History of Trier (Augusta Treverorum redirects to History of Trier#Roman Empire).

The main criterion for having two articles seem to be:

Keeping the main article from getting too long.
A clear or radical break in culture or dynasty.

In the case of Latakia, the main article is quite long, and there is a clear change from the Roman/Byzantine period to the Islamic period. So the current division seems reasonable.

But there is room for improving our criteria for cases like this in general. --Macrakis (talk) 21:24, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I understand the rationale behind having a separate article sometimes, but my contention is that I doubt that this applies in the case of Latakia.

I don't believe an article strictly on Roman Laodicea can be improved much on its own
I disagree about the radical break (especially in Hellenistic -> Roman transition)

I think a better argument could be made to change the scope of the article to cover the Hellenistic/Roman period until the Islamic conquest.

As it stands now it's a bit of a mess, as Laodicea ad Mare redirects to Latakia, while arguably it was the city's most flourishing era, while Laodicea in Syria hardly ever links to the current city. That's why I proposed to merge what's in Laodicea in Syria into the Latakia article until such moment when it can be more properly/systematically expanded. Yazan (talk) 13:57, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. The Roman/Islamic line is probably the right place to split the article, with content about Laodicea ad Mare merged into Laodicea in Syria. --Macrakis (talk) 17:37, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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External links modified[edit]

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