Nafia


Nafia is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the Daraa Governorate, located west of Daraa. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Nafia had a population of 2,673 in the 2004 census.

History

In 1884 American archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher described Nafia as a village of about 160 Muslims living in thirty-five huts made of stone and mud. The village was situated at an elevation slightly above its surroundings in the stony country of east of the Jawlan. Its soil was of high quality and its cultivable lands extended eastward to the Nahr al-Allan river. Schumacher surmised the village had been of greater importance in its past, due to the considerable ruins of ancient and more modern dwellings in its immediate vicinity.