sentences:  According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Ariha had a population of 39,501 in the 2004 census.The town is also the administrative centre of the Ariha District and the Ariha "nahiyah" (subdistrict), which consists of 24 localities, with a combined population of 83,487 in 2004.The Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote in 1226 that Ariha was a small town in the district of Aleppo and "one of the pleasantest and best of the places on God's earth."