Efrîn
عەفرین
Afrin · Centre of Çiyayê Kurmênc. Olive-grove city of the Kurd Mountain.
- Region
- Rojava
- English name
- Afrin
- Kurdish name
- Efrîn
- Sorani name
- عەفرین
- Population
- 37,000 (2004, city)
- Elevation
- 250 m
- Founded/origin
- A young market town of the early 20th century on the Efrîn river, at the heart of the ancient olive country of Çiyayê Kurmênc — the 'mountain of the Kurds'.
The hills around Efrîn — Kurd Dagh in Ottoman records — have been Kurdish-speaking for many centuries, terraced with olives since antiquity: the Iron-Age temple of Ain Dara and the Hellenistic-Roman city of Cyrrhus (Nebî Hûrî) both stand within the district. The modern town grew as the market of this mountain enclave, distinct from the rest of Rojava across the Euphrates. From 2012 it was governed by the Kurdish autonomous administration; in March 2018 Turkish forces and allied Syrian factions took the district in Operation Olive Branch, displacing a large part of its Kurdish population — the wound in Rojava's west has not closed.
Everything in Efrîn tastes of the olive — the district counted its trees in the millions, and its soap, oil and zeytûn baskets travelled far beyond Syria. The region is also a heartland of Kurdish Alevi and Êzidî village tradition, of the long-necked saz and of spring festivals on the tell-tops.
Mediterranean-leaning: mild wet winters and long hot dry summers — exactly the weather the olive loves.
Places in Efrîn
- Nebî Hûrî — Hellenistic and Roman city north of Efrîn — theatre, citadel and two Roman bridges still in use; the name honours the prophet Uriah, whose shrine tops a tower tomb.
- Ain Dara Temple — Iron-Age hilltop temple (c. 1300–700 BC) south of the city, famed for its basalt lions, sphinxes and metre-long footprints carved into the threshold. Badly damaged by shelling in 2018; pictured before the war.