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Quneitra

القنيطرة

A Syrian city left almost entirely destroyed after the 1967 and 1973 wars, returned to Syrian administration in 1974 within a demilitarized buffer zone, and kept in its ruined state as a testament to the war.

Quneitra is a Syrian city that served as the administrative center of Quneitra Governorate in the Golan Heights. It came under Israeli occupation during the June 1967 war, and most of its residents left. The city suffered extensive damage during the years of occupation and the fighting of the October 1973 war, and had become almost entirely destroyed by the time it was returned to Syrian administration.

Under the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between Syria and Israel, following UN Security Council Resolution 350, Quneitra was returned to Syrian sovereignty and placed within a demilitarized buffer zone monitored by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), an arrangement that continues today.

The Syrian government chose to leave the city in its destroyed state since 1974, without rebuilding it, as a lasting testament to the destruction it suffered, while a new town was built nearby to house displaced residents and take over its administrative functions. The ruins of the old city today include several prominently damaged buildings, among them the national hospital, the main mosque with its cracked minaret, and a Greek Catholic church.

Old Quneitra occasionally receives official visits and foreign or media delegations under the supervision of Syrian authorities, near the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights.

Through the ages

Modern: The city was destroyed during the 1967 and 1973 wars and returned to Syrian administration in 1974

For the visitor

Photos: Ed Brambley — via Wikimedia Commons — cropped (CC BY-SA)