The presence of place in Abdul-Rahman Munif's Narratives is one of the principal
characteristics of the modern Arabic Novel. We do not exaggerate to claim that the place
has changed into a central character in his prosaic works, because it represen
ts the
primordial space to all prosaic components, and it stands as the cradle of all human
existence, since it enjoys the possibility of transformation and summarizing concepts.
Part of the problem that this piece of research endeavours to disclose depends on
explaining the magnificent turbulances of place as a result of the human conduct which
does not consider the ethical and human issues quite remarkably since it aims at achieving
its totalitarian and materialistic interests at every cost.
The great shifts of place in the novel Cities of Salt emerge as the outcome of the
destructive human behaviour toward the virgin nature (intrinsically and extrinsically),
where Munif concurrently struggles to uncover the underlying psychological, sociological,
political and economic consequences that the human being of the Arab Peninsula has been
exposed to. At the same time, we conclude that the place has also left observable impacts
on mankind; henceforward, man starts complaining from alienation, disorientation and loss
of identity owing to the grand shifts manifested by the place
Housing is an important element of architectural surrounding, that appears to be an
outcome of the interaction of a number of factors whether regarding its age, model,
location, and area. So any building is valued by its aesthetic historic value as
well as its
capacity to satisfy the needs and comfort of its inhabitants.
The research presents an analytical study of the reality of contemporary housing and
its changes in the city of Latakia during the period 1921-2014, to register the most
important transformations that have occurred as a result of political, economic and social
conditions on the architectural level (housing) and urban level (residential complexes).
The research has sum up a set of architectural aspects that have changed in the
design of buildings in Latakia , along with the most important reasons causing this change.
This study is concerned with the variations in annual and seasonal surface
air temperature in Syria, depending on the data from 12 different
meteorological stations in Syria.
The analysis of surface temperature trends was performed using Least
sq
uares (linear regression) and Moving- averaging filters according to
Gaussian low- pass filter.
Fast Fourier Transformation was used for the analysis of periodicity for the
annual mean surface temperature.
The results of linear regression showed that the general trend of annual and
seasonal temperature in all stations was positive except Latakya.
The results of annual and seasonal temperature, fluctuations revealed the
existence of important warming period in all stations starting from 1993-1994
for the average of annual and winter temperature while summer, autumn and
spring temperatures averages were above the mean during the study period.
Periodicities analysis showed that the surface air temperature seems to be
affected by solar cycle and quasi- biennial oscillation as well as the El-nino
southern oscillation.
