Homs

Homs (UK: /hɒms/ HOMSS, US: /hɔːms, hɔːmz, hʊms/ HAWMSS, HAWMZ, HUUMSS; Arabic: حِمْص / ALA-LC: Ḥimṣ ; Levantine Arabic: حُمْص / Ḥomṣ ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa (/ˈɛməsə/ EM-ə-sə; Ancient Greek: Ἔμεσα, romanized: Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is 501 metres (1,644 ft) above sea level and is located 162 kilometres (101 mi) north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.

Before the Syrian Civil War, Homs was a major industrial centre, and with a population of at least 652,609 people in 2004, it was the third-largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflected Syria's general religious diversity, composed of Sunni and Alawite Muslims, and Christians. There are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a World Heritage Site.

Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st century BC at the time of the Seleucids. It later became the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesene dynasty who gave the city its name. Originally a center of worship for the sun god El-Gabal, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th century and made capital of a district that bore its current name. Throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the city's strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its economic importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, a center of Baathist resistance to the first Syrian governments. During the Syrian civil war, much of the city was devastated due to the Siege of Homs; reconstruction to affected parts of the city is underway with major reconstruction beginning in 2018.

## Etymology

The origin of the city's modern name is that it is an Arabic form of the city's Latin name Emesus, derived from the Greek Émesa or Émesos, or Hémesa.

Most sources claim that the name Emesa in turn derived from the name of the nomadic Arab tribe known in Greek as Emesenoi, who inhabited the region prior to Roman influence in the area. Émesa was shortened to Homs or Hims by its Arab inhabitants, many of whom settled there prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria.

Other sources claim that the name Émesa or Hémesa was derived from that of the Aramean city of Hamath-zobah, a combination of Hamath (Hebrew: חֲמָת, romanized: Ḥamāth; Syriac: ܚܡܬ, romanized: Ḥmṭ; "fortress") and Sawbah (Hebrew: צובָא; Syriac: ܨܘܒܐ Ṣwba; "nearness"). Thus, the name collectively means "The fortress surrounding" which refers to the Citadel of Homs and the encircling plains.

The city was subsequently referred to as Χέμψ (Khémps) in Medieval Greek, and as "la Chamelle" (literally meaning "the female camel" in French but likely a corruption of the Arabic name according to René Dussaud) by the Crusaders (e.g. William of Tyre, Historia, 7.12, 21.6), although they never ruled the city.

## History

For approximately 2,000 years, Homs has served as a key agricultural market, production site and trade center for the villages of northern Syria. It has also provided security services to the hinterland of Syria, protecting it from invading forces. Excavations at the Citadel of Homs indicate that the earliest settlement at the site dates back to around 2300 BCE. Biblical scholars have identified the city with Hamath-zobah of Zobah mentioned in the Bible. In 1274 BCE, a battle took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River near Homs. It was possibly the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots.

### Emesene dynasty and Roman rule

Strabo only mentioned Arethusa in his Geography, as a "very strong place" of the Arab Sampsigeramos and of his son Iamblikhos, "phylarchs" of the Emesene, who had allied themselves to Q. Caecilius Bassus against Caesar in 47 BC; the translators above cited have thought strange Strabo's not saying a word about Emesa. Claims have been made that Emesa was founded by Seleucus I Nicator who established the Seleucid Empire upon the death of Alexander the Great. However, according to Henri Seyrig, Emesa does not seem to have received any Greek colony and the authors' complete silence makes one think that it did not increase its visibility under the Seleucid kings. According to Henri Seyrig, it even seems that Posidonius, to whom Strabo probably referred concerning the Emesenes' phylarchs' alliance with Q. Caecilius Bassus, regarded the Emesenes as a simple tribe, governed by its sheikhs, and still devoid of a real urban existence; according to Maamoun Abdulkarim, occupation of the citadel's tell does not confirm the existence of a real urban center in the plain before the Roman period and recent excavations have refuted the existence of vestiges preceding the Roman period under the actual town's outline, and the existence of an Arab Emesene dynasty in the region, probably located in Arethusa, attests to the secondary nature of this area during the Hellenistic period. Upon Pompey's submission of the Seleucid state of Syria to the Roman Republic in 64 BCE, the Emesene dynasty were confirmed in their rule as client kings of the Romans for aiding their troops in various wars. At its greatest extent, the Arab kingdom's boundaries extended from the Bekaa Valley in the west to the border with Palmyra in the east, and from Yabrud in the south to al-Rastan (Arethusa) in the north. A marker at the Palmyrene's southwestern border was found in 1936 by Daniel Schlumberger at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, dating from the reign of Hadrian or one of his successors, which marked the boundary between Palmyrene and Emesene (Pliny the Elder asserted that both territories were contiguous); this boundary probably ran northwards to Khirbet al-Bilaas on Jabal al-Bilas where another marker, laid by Roman governor Silanus, has been found, 75 kilometres (47 mi) northwest of Palmyra, probably marking a boundary with the territory of Epiphania. The kingdom of Sampsiceramus I, was the first of Rome's Arab clients on the desert fringes.

The city of Emesa grew to prominence after the new-found wealth of the Emesene dynasty, governed first by one of the sons of Sampsiceramus I, Iamblichus I who made it the kingdom's capital. The Emesene proved their loyalty to Rome once more when they aided Gaius Julius Caesar in his siege of Alexandria in 48 BC, by sending him army detachments. Subsequently, they became embroiled in the Roman Civil War between the rebelling Mark Antony and the pro-Caesar Octavian. Iamblichus I took the side of Octavian, and so upon encouragement from Antony, Iamblichus's brother Alexander usurped the throne and put Iamblichus I to death in 31 BCE. Octavian's forces prevailed in the war, however, and as a result the kingdom's throne was reverted to Iamblichus II (the son of Iamblichus I) after Alexander was executed for treason. It was in 32 that Heliopolis and the Beqaa Valley came under the kingdom's control. Relations with the Roman government grew closer when King Sohaemus inherited the kingship. Under him, Emesa sent the Roman military a regular levy of archers and assisted them in their siege of Jerusalem in 70. Sohaemus had died in 73. According to Maurice Sartre, the dynasty was very likely deprived of its kingdom, which was annexed to the Roman province of Syria, between 72 and the date of the construction of the Tomb of Sampsigeramus (78–79).

Under the Romans, Emesa began to show attributes of a Greek city-state and traces of Roman town planning still remain. Its transformation into a major city was completed under the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) when Emesa began to mint coins. By the 3rd century, it grew prosperous and well integrated into the Roman Orient. This was partly due to the marriage of Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus to a woman from a family of notables based in Emesa. According to a text of Ulpian (Digest 50.15.1.4) and another one of Paul (Digest 50.15.8.6), Caracalla and Elagabalus each promoted Emesa to the rank of a colonia and granted ius Italicum to it; Eugène Albertini has hypothesized about a revocation by Macrinus of the privileges given by Caracalla and a reestablishment of those by Elagabalus. Elagabalus served as the high priest at the Temple of El-Gebal, the local Arab sun god. He brought the image of this god, a conical black stone (Baetylus), to the Elagabalium in Rome.

Emesa also grew wealthy because it formed a link in the eastern trade funnelled through Palmyra; however, this dependence also caused the city's downfall when Palmyra sank to insignificance in the 4th century. Nonetheless, Emesa at this time had grown to rank with the important cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and Damascus. It also continued to retain local significance, because it was the market center for the surrounding villages. The city remained a strong center of paganism, because of the Temple of El-Gabal. After one of his victories over Zenobia, Emperor Aurelian visited the city to pay thanks to the deity.

Due to the strength of the pagan sun cult in Emesa, Christians initially did not settle in the city. Eusebius writes that Silvanus, the city's first bishop, had no jurisdiction over the city, but the surrounding villages. He was executed by Emperor Julian and succeeded by Bishop Antonius—the first bishop to settle Emesa. By the 5th century, Christianity was well established under the Byzantine Empire; however, few ancient Christian inscriptions exist in Homs today. Under the Byzantines, the city became an important center for Eastern Christianity. Initially a diocese, Homs was given the status of ecclesiastical metropolis after the discovery of John the Baptist's head in a nearby cave in 452. Nemesius, who lived in the fourth or early fifth century AD, was the bishop of Emesa.

During the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, Emesa fell in 613 to Shahrbaraz and was in Sasanian hands until near the end of the war.

### Arab caliphates and dynasties

Prior to the Muslim conquest of Syria, Arab tribes, particularly the Banu Kalb, settled around Emesa, ensuring its position as an important Yamani center. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius abandoned the city—which served as his headquarters—after his army's defeat by the Rashidun Muslims under Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab during the Battle of Yarmouk in southern Syria. In 637 CE, the Rashidun army led by Khalid ibn al-Walid captured Emesa peacefully because its inhabitants agreed to pay a substantial ransom of 71,000 to 170,000 dinars. The caliph Umar established Homs as the capital of Jund Hims, a district of the province of Bilad al-Sham, encompassing the towns of Latakia, Jableh, and Tartus along the coast, Palmyra in the Syrian Desert and the territory in between, including the town of Hama. Homs was likely the first city in Syria to have a substantial Muslim population.

In 638, Heraclius sought help from the Christian Arab tribes who came from al-Jazira, particularly mainly from Circesium and Hīt and the tribes mustered a large army and besieged Emesa. However the siege was a failure as the coalition forces lost heart and abandoned the city as at the time Iyad ibn Ghanm invaded their homeland in an effort to counter their act.

The Muslims transformed half of St. John's Church into the city's Friday Mosque (Great Mosque of al-Nuri) and Homs soon became a centre of Islamic piety since some 500 companions of Muhammad settled there after its conquest. The tombs of Khalid ibn al-Walid, his son Abd al-Rahman, and Ubayd Allah, the son of Caliph Umar are located in the city. During the conflict between the Umayyads and Ali, the inhabitants of Homs allied themselves with Ali and when the latter was defeated, the Umayyad caliph Mu'awiyah hived the northern half of Jund Hims to form a separate district, Jund Qinnasrin, apparently as punishment. Ali's oratory (mashhad 'Ali) was located in the city, and Islamic tradition claims his fingerprints are engraved on it. Despite repression by the Umayyads, Homs remained a center of Shia Islam for a while longer. As a stronghold of the Banu Kalb, the city became involved in the latter's conflicts with the Qays tribal faction. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, enjoyed the support of the Qais and subsequently razed the city walls in response to a rebellion by the Banu Kalb.

In 750, the Abbasids wrested control of Syria, including Homs, from the Umayyads, and the Arab tribes revolted. Despite the prosperity Homs experienced during this era, Abbasid rule was generally not welcomed nevertheless. During and after the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (796–809), the Abbasid authorities sent numerous punitive expeditions against Homs. Under the reign of Caliph al-Mutawakkil, in October 855, the Christian population revolted in response to additional taxation. The caliph put down the revolt by expelling Christians from the city, burning down their churches and executing members of their leadership.

With Abbasid rule over the Caliphate weakening in the mid-9th century, Homs became sought after by rebel dynasties contending for control of Syria due to the city's strategic position. Initially, the Egypt-based Tulunids came into control of it, but they were forced out by the Aleppo-based Hamdanids, who were briefly succeeded by the Qarmatians, after the latter's Turkish rebel ally Aftakin invaded northern Syria and established Homs as his base. In 891 Muslim geographer al-Yaqubi noted that Homs was situated along a broad river which served as a source of drinking water for the inhabitants. It was one of the largest cities in Syria and had several smaller districts surrounding it. In 944 the Hamdanids took definitive control of the city, dominating it until 1016. Arab geographer al-Mas'udi claimed in the early 10th century that Homs was "noted for the personal beauty of its inhabitants." In 985, al-Muqaddasi noted that Homs was the largest city in all of Syria, but it had suffered "great misfortunes" and was "threatened with ruin." He stated that when the city was conquered by the Muslims they turned half of its church into a mosque.

For around thirty years during the 10th century, Homs was raided by the Byzantines led by Nikephoros II Phokas in October 968, and its inhabitants were subject to slaughter and plunder while the city's mosque (Great Mosque of al-Nuri) was briefly restored as a church. In 974–975, John I Tzimiskes managed to control the city during his Syrian campaigns.

Throughout most of the 11th century, the Byzantine raids receded greatly and the Mirdasids of the Banu Kilab tribe ruled over Homs, replacing the Hamdanids. Inclined towards Shia Islam, they did not oppose the Shia Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt which was aiming to extend its rule into northern Syria and Iraq at the time. This precipitated a Sunni Muslim reaction led by the Saljuqid Turks who occupied Homs under the leadership of Aq Sunqur al-Hajib in 1090.

### Saljuqid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk rule

The First Crusade was launched in 1096, and in 1098, the Crusaders captured Antioch to the northwest, looted Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, and finally besieged Homs itself. Although they managed to cut the city off from its main port Tartus, they failed in taking the city. Soon after, Homs came under the control of the Saljuqid ruler of Damascus, Duqaq, who transformed it into a large, fortified camp and key fortress effectively preventing the Crusaders from penetrating deeper into Muslim territory. Immune from attack, Homs became a point where the Muslims could marshal their forces and launch raids against Crusader holdings along the Mediterranean coast. In the early 12th century, the Saljuqids engaged in internal fighting, during which Homs was often a prize. In 1149 the Mosul-based Zangids under Nur al-Din captured the city.

Muslim geographer al-Idrisi noted in 1154 that Homs was populous, had paved streets, possessed one of the largest mosques in Syria, contained open markets, and was frequented by travellers attracted to its "products and rarities of all kinds." He also reported that its residents were "pleasant; living with them is easy, and their manners are agreeable. The women are beautiful and are celebrated for their fine skin." A series of earthquakes in 1157 inflicted heavy damage upon Homs and its fortress, then in 1170, a minor quake finished off the latter. However, because of its strategic importance, being opposite of the Crusader County of Tripoli, the city and its fortifications were soon restored. In 1164, Nur al-Din awarded Homs to Asad ad-Din Shirkuh as a iqtâ, but reclaimed it five years later following Shirkuh's death. The latter's nephew, Saladin, occupied Homs in early December 1174, but the garrison at the citadel resisted. He later departed for Aleppo, and left a small army in Homs' lower town. The defenders of the citadel offered to set their Christian prisoners free, if Raymond III, Count of Tripoli provided military assistance for them. William of Tyre later emphasized that the commanders of the crusader army doubted if the defenders of the Homs citadel actually wanted to release their prisoners. Saladin returned to Homs soon after he was informed about the negotiations between the crusaders and the garrison. Instead of attacking him, the crusader army retreated to Krak des Chevaliers; this enabled Saladin to capture the citadel on 17 March 1175. In 1179, after reorganising his territories in northern Syria, Saladin restored Homs to his Ayyubid dynasty. Shirkuh's descendants retained Homs for nearly a century until 1262 with the death of al-Ashraf Musa. In 1225, Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned that Homs was large, celebrated and walled, having a strongly fortified castle on its southern hill.

Towards the end of Ayyubid rule, Homs remained a centrepiece of the wars between them and the Crusaders, as well as internecine conflicts with the Mongol Empire and the Mamluks. The First Battle of Homs between the Mongols and the Mamluks took place on 10 December 1260, ending in a decisive Mamluk victory. The Second Battle of Homs was fought on 29 October 1281, also ending in a Mamluk victory. The Mamluks were finally defeated in the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar, also known as the "Third Battle of Homs," in 1299.

Homs declined politically after falling to the Mamluks under Baibars because their campaigns effectively drove out the Crusaders and the Mongols from the entirety of Syria. At the beginning of the 14th century, the city was merely the capital of the smallest province of Syria and was often attached to the province of Damascus. Ibn Batuta visited Homs in 1355, writing that it had fine trees, good markets, and a "fine Friday Mosque," noting that all of its inhabitants were Arabs. Timur seized the city in 1400. Nevertheless, he did not sack it as he did in Aleppo, Hama and later Damascus, due to a man called "'Amr bin al-Rawas" who conciled with him offering precious gifts to save the city. Later in the 15th century as Mamluk weakness had brought insecurity to the countryside, Homs was ravaged by Bedouin raids; In 1510 a powerful tribe led by al-Fadl bin Nu'ayr was sent on an expedition by the governor of Damascus to loot the city markets as Homs had failed to pay compensation for his "services."

### Ottoman rule

In 1516, Homs was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire and consequently suffered a greater political eclipse, but it continued to thrive as an economic center, processing the agricultural and pastoral products that flowed to it from surrounding districts. Homs was particularly well known for silk and wool weaving, especially the alaja, which was mottled muslin run through with gold threads and used in feminine apparel. This silk was exported as far as the Ottoman capital Istanbul. In addition to weaving industries, there were olive oil presses and water mills for wheat and sesame, while grapes and rice, grown in the surrounding marshlands from the 16th century, were found in abundance in the city's markets. Moreover, the markets of Homs were the center of a trade in livestock, where flocks of sheep and goats coming from Aleppo met camels and cattle moving north from Damascus.

The coming of the Ottomans brought administrative changes to Homs, as it became the capital city of sanjak ("district") of Homs, attached to the eyalet ("province") of Tripoli—its old rival. In the late 16th century the district was ruled by emir 'Ali Harfush of the famous Shiite Harfush dynasty of the nearby Beqaa valley. Later, a French visitor noted that the city walls and citadel were in good repair, but all within was in decay and only its covered markets "retained their beauty." In 1785 French traveller, Volney wrote of the city's once great importance and its current "miserable" condition. He described it as a large, but ruined village administratively dependent on Damascus. The Ottomans did little to revitalise Homs or ensure its security against Bedouin raids. Tribal unrest throughout the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the sacking of its markets on several occasions. Security was even more hampered, when in the 18th century, the Ottomans tore down the gates of the city's walls. Around 1708, the emir Hamad al-'Abbas of the Mawali Bedouin confederation, whom the Ottomans had named "emir of the desert" (çöl beyi) in the region, actually managed to capture the governor of Homs to hold him for ransom.

The countryside of Homs saw an increase in Bedouin raids in the first half of the 19th century, interrupted by its occupation by Muhammad Ali's Egypt led by Ibrahim Pasha between 1832 and 1840. The city rebelled against Egyptian rule and consequently, the citadel was destroyed when the Egyptians suppressed the revolt. Ottoman rule was soon restored and up to the 1860s, Homs was large enough to form a discrete economic unit of trade and processing of agricultural products from its satellite villages and the neighbouring Bedouin tribes.

The local economy was stimulated when the Ottoman government extended security to the city and its surrounding areas; new villages were established and old ones were resettled. However, Homs found itself faced with European economic competition since Ottoman rule was restored. Homs' economic importance was boosted again during the depression of the 1870s, as its cotton industry boomed due to a decline of European textile production. The quality and design of cotton goods from Homs satisfied both the lower and upper classes of the local, Ottoman, and foreign markets. There were around 5,000 looms in Homs and nearby Hama, and one British consul referred to Homs as the "Manchester of Syria."

### Modern era

### 20th century

Throughout the 20th century Homs held high political importance in the country and was home to several heads of state and other high-ranking government officials. In October 1918, it was captured by the 5th Cavalry Division of the Allied forces. During the French mandate, Homs was part of the State of Damascus. It was considered for some time to become the capital of the Syrian Federation. In Autumn 1925, the city joined Damascus and the southern Druze chieftains in a full-blown revolt against French rule. In 1932, the French moved their military academy from Damascus to Homs to be established in 1933, later known as Homs Military Academy, and it remained the only military academy in Syria until 1967. The French authorities had created a locally recruited military force designated as the Special Troops of the Levant, in which the Alawites were given privileged positions. The military academy in Homs trained the indigenous officers for these Troupes Speciales du Levant. The Homs Military Academy played a major role in the years following Syria's independence, as many of its graduates went on to become high-ranking officers in the Syrian Army, many of them taking part in the series of coup d'états that were to follow. An important example was Hafez al-Assad who became the president of Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.

An oil pipeline between Tripoli and Kirkuk was built in Homs in the early 1930s and it followed an ancient caravan route between Palmyra and the Mediterranean. In 1959, an oil refinery was built to process some of this oil for domestic consumption. The city's oil refinery was bombed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

### 21st century

From May 2011 – May 2014, the city was under siege by the Syrian Army and security forces. The Syrian government claims it is targeting "armed gangs" and "terrorists" in the area. According to the Syrian opposition, Homs has since become a "blighted city," where authorities regularly block deliveries of medicine, food and fuel to the inhabitants of certain districts. By June, there were near-daily confrontations between protesting residents and Syrian forces. As a result of these circumstances, there have been more deaths in Homs and its vicinity than in other areas of Syria. Homs was the first Syrian city where images of al-Assad and his family were routinely torn down or defaced and the first place where Syrian forces used artillery during the uprising. The Center for Documenting Violations in Syria claims that at least 1,770 people have been killed in Homs since the uprising began.

On 9 December 2015, under a UN-negotiated deal, the remnants of anti-government forces and their families, that had been under siege the al-Waer district for three years, began to evacuate from the city.

## Geography

The Governorate of Homs is the largest in Syria. Homs, the governorate's capital, is located in central western Syria, situated along the east bank of the Orontes River in a particularly fertile area. The city is in between the southern outliers of the Coastal Mountain Range located to the west and Mount Lebanon, overlooking the Homs Gap. Because of the gap, the area around Homs receives much more rainfall and gusty winds than interior regions to its north and south. To the east of Homs, is the Syrian Desert. Lake Homs, impounded by a huge dam of Roman origins, is to the southwest, lying some 125 kilometres (78 mi) south of Aleppo and 34 kilometres (21 mi) south of Hama, halfway on the road between the capital Damascus and Aleppo. The Orontes River splits the city into two main sections: To the east, on a flat land lies the city center and the main neighbourhoods; to the west, lies the more recent and modern suburb of al-Waer. The city spans an area of 4,800 hectares (19 sq mi).

Homs is located 162 kilometres (101 mi) north of Damascus, 193 kilometres (120 mi) south of Aleppo, 47 kilometres (29 mi) south of Hama, and 186 kilometres (116 mi) southeast of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast. Nearby towns and villages include al-Rayyan to the southeast, Maskanah, al-Nuqayrah, Abil and Kafr Aya to the south, al-Qusayr, Qattinah and al-Buwaydah al-Sharqiyah to the southwest, Khirbet Tin Nur to the west, al-Dar al-Kabirah to the northwest, al-Ghantu, Teir Maalah, al-Mukhtariyah and Talbiseh to the north, al-Mishirfeh to the northeast and Fairouzeh and Zaidal to the east.

### Old City and subdivisions

The Old City is the most condensed area of Homs, and it includes the neighbourhoods of Bab Tadmur, Bab al-Dreib, Bab Hud and the immediate vicinity of the citadel, covering an area of 1.2 square kilometres (0.46 sq mi). Little remains of the Old City; its walls and gates were demolished in the Ottoman era, but a short section of fortified wall with a circular corner tower still exists. Half a kilometre to the south, a large earth mound marks the site where the citadel once stood. To the north of the citadel lies the Christian Quarter, known as "al-Hamidiyah". This neighbourhood is one of the few areas of Homs that retains its older look, with most of the alternating black-and-white stone buildings dating from the Mamluk era. They are still used as shops and dwellings, and there has been recent renovation.

At the time of the Abbasids, Homs was known for its seven gates. They were Bab al-Souq (Gate of the Market), Bab Tadmur (Gate of Palmyra), Bab al-Dreib (or Bab al-Deir), Bab al-Sebaa (Gate of the Lions), Bab al-Turkman (Gate of the Turkmen), Bab al-Masdoud (Closed Door), and Bab Hud (The Gate of Hud). Only two gates—Bab Tadmor and Bab al-Dreib—remain today. The oldest of Homs' mosques and churches are located in the Old City.

Homs consists of several subdivisions outside the Old City. The large neighbourhood of Khaldiyah spreads along its northern edge which is bordered by Al-Bayadah and Deir Baalbah, while the more modern neighbourhoods of al-Sabil, al-Zahra Jub al-Jandali and Armenian quarter are situated to the east of the Old City. South of it are the neighbourhoods of Bab al-Sebaa, al-Mreijeh, al-Adawiyya, al-Nezha, Akrama and beyond them lay the Karm al-Loz, Karm al-Zaytoun, Wadi al-Dhahab, al-Shamas, Masaken al-Idikhar and Dahia al-Walid neighbourhoods. The modern commercial centre lies to the west in the neighbourhood of Jouret al-Shayyah, and further west are the upscale neighbourhoods of Qusoor, al-Qarabis, al-Baghtasia, al-Mahatta, al-Hamra, al-Inshaat, Karm al-Shami, al-Ghouta and Baba Amr. The suburb of al-Waer is located even further west, separated from the city by areas of farmland called al-Basatin and the Orontes River forming a green belt where it is forbidden to build anything. The Baath University complex and dormitories are located on the western-southern edge of the city next to the neighbourhood of Akrama.

### Climate

Homs has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa''').

Homs' location ensures that it receives softening influences and breezes from the Mediterranean. As a result, the city has a much milder climate than nearby Hama, with higher average rainfall of 18 inches (460 mm) instead of 14 inches (360 mm), but it also experiences greater winds.

## Demographics

Homs was one of the largest cities in Syria in the 12th century with a population of 7,000. In 1785, the inhabitants of Homs numbered more than 2,000 and the population was divided almost evenly between Eastern Orthodox Christians and Muslims. The 1860s saw a rise in the population to 15,000–20,000. By 1907, Homs had roughly 65,000 inhabitants, of which two-thirds were Muslims and the remainder Christians. In the 1981 census, the population stood at 346,871, rising to 540,133 in 1994. According to the 2004 census by Syria's Central Bureau of Statistics, Homs had a population of 652,609 of which 51.5% were male and 48.5% female. In an independent 2005 estimate the city had 750,000 residents, and as of 2008 the population was estimated at about 823,000. Homs Governorate had an estimated 1,767,000 people in 2011.

Today, Homs' population reflects Syria's general religious diversity, and is made up primarily of Sunni Muslims (including Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen), with minorities of Alawites, Eastern Orthodox Christians and Assyrians. In addition to Catholics, Evangelists and Maronites. In the 1880s, the Survey of Western Palestine noted that there were 5,500 Greek Orthodox Christians and 1,500 Syriac Orthodox Christians. The Syriac Patriarchate was transferred to Homs from Mardin in 1933, but relocated once more to Damascus in 1959.

During the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century, about 20,000 Armenians immigrated to Homs and the surrounding villages. A small Greek community also exists in the city.

## Economy

After long periods of stagnation under Ottoman rule, Homs started to flourish again in the 20th century. Its geographic and strategic location has made it a centre of agriculture and industry. The "Homs Irrigation Scheme", the first of its kind in modern Syria, brought prosperity to cultivators and the long-established enterprises involved in the processing of agricultural and pastoral products. Crops grown in Homs include wheat, barley, lentils, sugar beets, cotton, and vines, as well as serving as a point of exchange between the sedentary zone and the desert. Moreover, because of easy access to the Mediterranean, Homs has attracted overland trade from the Persian Gulf and Iraq.

Homs is also home to several large public heavy industries, such as the oil refinery west of the city which opened in 1959. A fertiliser plant was built in 1971 to process phosphates from their deposits near Palmyra; the fertiliser is for domestic consumption and export. A growing private industrial sector has flourished in the past decade and many small to medium-sized enterprises occupy the industrial zones northwest and south of the city. A new sugar refinery is being built by a Brazilian company, and an automobile plant is under construction by Iran Khodro. Also a new phosphate plant and oil refinery are being built east of the city. Homs is also the hub of an important road and rail network, it is the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.

A major industrial project was the establishment of a new industrial city in Hisyah, 47 kilometres (29 mi) south of the city of Homs. Spreading across some 2,500 hectares (25 km<sup>2</sup>), the city covers four main industrial sectors: textiles, food, chemical, engineering and vocational. In all, the facilities are designed to accommodate up to 66,000 workers and their families. Moreover, a free zone has been established within the city.

The hinterland of Homs is well known for its grapes which are used in Syria's liqueur industry, particularly in producing arak, nectar wine, and red wine. The city is considered a good base for day trips and excursions to the many historical and touristic sights nearby. Popular destinations include Krak des Chevaliers, Qatna, Talkalakh and Marmarita. Homs has several hotels; Safir Hotel is considered one of Syria's best five-star hotels and the only one of that status in the city. An-Nasr al-Jedid Hotel is built in a 100-year-old mansion and is labelled by tour guides as the "best budget hotel in Homs". Other hotels include Hotel al-Mimas, Ghazi Hotel, and Hotel Khayyam.

## Culture

### Cuisine

Although people in Homs eat the same foods common in Levantine cuisine, the city is well known throughout Syria for its own cuisine. A prominent dish is Batarsh, a type of baba ghanouj made with yogurt and garlic instead of tahini. Homs is also home to a variety of kibbeh mishwiyyeh or "grilled kibbeh". It consists of two pancakes of kibbeh stuffed with ground lamb, cooked with lamb fat and various spices. Jazar Mahshi ("stuffed carrot") is native dish in Homs and is made of yellow carrot stuffed with minced lamb, rice. The city specialises in cooking a type of okra meal, known as bamya bi-l zayt ("okra with olive oil").

Homs has an array of restaurants, some of the most highly acclaimed are those within the Safir Hotel: Mamma Mia and Mersia. The former specialises in Italian cuisine, while the latter serves Arabic food. For the local population, popular restaurants include Prince Restaurant which acts as a type of fast-food place, serving shawarma, grilled chicken, and other common Syrian foods, as well as homemade juices. In the Old City, low-price restaurants are grouped together along Shoukri al-Quwatly Street and sell similar foods, such as hummus, falafel, various salads (mezze), shish kebab and chicken dishes. Restaurants and coffeehouses typically offer hookahs and are a common place for men to gather and smoke. Other notable restaurants include Broasted Kreish, a local favourite for shish taouk and shawarma on the Korniche St just south of the Ghouta; the Rawda, a garden lounge located by the New Clock Tower which is known by locals for its Homsi-style fatteh and for the atmosphere created by its divided men and family areas, providing an area for men to gather to play cards, smoke and watch soccer games and for families to have a drink and dessert on late downtime.

Homs also recently emerged as the restaurant scene in pre-civil-war Syria after completing its Malab St. Hamra development. The Hamra Street in the Malab area was home to a strip of highly rated restaurants including La Luna, a shisha lounge; Chez Moi, serving a few French dishes along with the typical local food; Mia Casa, an Italian restaurant; Troy, an American-Latin-Syrian mashup; and Quattro, another Italian restaurant.

Like in Damascus and Aleppo, many houses in the Old City of Homs have been renovated and transformed into restaurants specialising in Levantine cuisine. Most notable of these is Beit al-Agha restaurant, situated in a renovated palace that dates back to the mid-19th century with Ottoman and Mamluk architecture, and Julia Dumna Restaurant, which has been described as the best example of traditional Homsi houses, with its white and black stones.

### Museums

There are two main museums in Homs, both located in the central part of the city. Qasr al-Zahrawi, a former Mamluk-era palace belonging to Ali ibn Abi al-Fadl al-Azzhari, a subordinate of Baibars, the Mamluk sultan, is now the National Folklore Museum. Outside the building is a courtyard, occupied on one side by a large terraced liwan with a conch shell semi-dome. In the opposite wall, there is a carving of two lions, a symbol of Baibars. The first museum built in the city, Homs Museum founded in 1922, is located along Shoukri al-Quwatly Street and contains a selection of artefacts from the Homs region, covering the time between the prehistoric and Islamic eras.

### Festivals

Homs has several festivals, and the city annually co-hosts the Desert Folk Festival and the Al-Badiya Festival with Palmyra. The Desert Folk Festival is an annual festival of the ancient traditions and costumes of the Badiya (Syrian Desert) and it includes exhibitions and concerts between Homs and Palmyra. The festival is held in the first week of May. The Al-Badiya Festival, which is held mainly in Palmyra with some events in Homs, draws approximately 60,000 tourists during the last week of May. Activities include horse, camel and car races, horse contests, music and theatre shows, antique exhibitions and a crafts market. Other festivals include the al-Nasarah Festival and the Festival of Krak des Chevaliers and the Valley. An annual festival is held at the Church of Saint Elian, attracting large numbers of pilgrims.

Historically, Wednesday was considered an important day for Homs citizens which is related to certain events happened in the history of the city. During the Emesani dynasty era, people who worshiped the sun god Elagabalus held their liturgies at the great "Temple of the Sun" (currently al-Nouri mosque), celebrating the creation of the Sun on "the fourth day" of the divine workweek (The Creation narrative in the Hebrew Bible).

### Sports

Homs is home to two football clubs. The Al-Karamah Sports Club was founded in 1928 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Syria. Al-Karamah is widely acclaimed on the regional and national levels, having won eight Syrian League titles, and eight Syrian Cup titles. Al-Karamah was a runner-up in the 2006 AFC Champions League. The second sports club of the city is Al-Wathba Sports Club, which was founded in 1937. The Khaled ibn al-Walid Stadium has a 35,000-person capacity and is home to both football clubs. Another stadium called Bassel al-Assad Stadium with a capacity of 25,000 was inaugurated in 2000. Homs has produced a number of well-known sportsmen, including footballers Firas Al Khatib and Jehad Al Hussain.

### Theaters

Culture House Theater in Homs was established in 1973. It hosts theatre plays, poetry, instrumental and musical festivals.

## Government

Homs is the capital of the Homs District, and the capital of the Homs Governorate—the largest governorate in Syria, and houses the seat of its governor, appointed by the president. The city of Homs is governed by a city council and is home to the Executive Office. The latter consists of nine elected members, in addition to the president of the city council. The Office aids the Governor in making management decisions related to the Governorate, while the city council is responsible for decisions specific to the city of Homs. It is headed by a president, Nadia Kseibi, and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the city.

The council's organizational structure is composed of the top leadership, consisting of the president, vice-president, and secretary, and the lower leadership, made up of the directors of seventeen city branches: Administrative Affairs, Finance, Technical Affairs, Health Affairs, Legal Affairs, the Fire Department, Mechanisms, Parks, Hygiene, Property, Provisional Register, Services and Maintenance, Works, IT, Planning and Statistics, Culture, and Internal Oversight Service.

## Education

The oldest schools in Homs were founded by American missionaries, the "National Evangelical School" in 1855, and "Al Ghassania Orthodox School" in 1887.

Homs is home to the Al-Baath University, one of four major universities in Syria was founded in 1979. A specialist engineering foundation, the university has one of the largest student bodies. It houses several faculties including medicine, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences and a number of two-year career (vocational) institutions. It is the only university in the country to have departments in petroleum engineering and veterinary medicine.

The German University at Wadi al-Nasarah opened in 2004 and is located 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of the city. In 2005, the International School of Choueifat opened a school outside the city. Al-Andalus University for Medical Sciences was established in 2005 near Homs, and is constructing one of its University Hospitals in the city.

There are 1,727 schools and 15,000 kindergartens in the Homs Governorate, most of which are public facilities. In 2007, 375,000 students in the governorate were enrolled in elementary schools (6–15 years), 36,000 in high schools (15–18 years), and around 12,000 in vocational training schools.

## Local infrastructure

### Transportation

Homs is considered a transportation hub in Syria, by virtue of its central location between the coastal cities and the interior. The main bus terminal is Karnak, situated along Hama Street, 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north of the city centre on the outskirts. The terminal offers connections to most Syrian cities and Beirut, Lebanon. It also has international bus connections to Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. A second "luxury" bus station is located a little further north. Minibuses operate from Karnak station with destinations to Tartus, Palmyra, and Hama in northern Syria, as well as Baalbek, Tripoli, and Beirut in Lebanon. Newer microbuses that mostly travel to Hama are also based in Karnak and are mostly used for quick transportation.

Homs has a large railway station, with two Chemins de Fer Syriens operated daily departures to Damascus and Aleppo. The nearest airports are Bassel Al-Assad International Airport in Latakia to the west, Damascus International Airport to the south, Aleppo International Airport to the north, and Palmyra Airport in the Syrian Desert to the east.

Hama Street starts at the Old Clock Square in the city center and crosses Homs from south to north, where it continues along the neighbourhood of al-Khaldiyah on to the Karnak station, and turns into the Homs-Hama-Aleppo highway. Quwatli Street, named after former president Shukri al-Quwatli, is a short but vital street that connects the Old Clock Square and Quwatli Square in Downtown Homs. It branches into several smaller streets on its western end, one of which is al-Dablan Street which is the main commercial block in the city, and the other continues west to connect with the Homs-Tripoli highway. On the eastern end, al-Quwatli street continues as al-Hamidiyah Street which crosses the old Christian quarter and continues to the eastern edge of the city. The Homs-Damascus highway crosses the city from the south and reaches the city center in Quwatli Square.

### Landmarks

The city itself is famous for its historic mosques and churches. It is also well recognised by its two public clocks standing at each end of Quwatli Street. The older one, at the eastern end facing al-Hamidiya Street, was elevated by the French in 1923, and the other one, at the western end facing al-Dablan street, is housed in the New Clock Tower which was built in 1957. Homs is well known for its historical roofed souks. These consist of a complex maze of narrow streets and covered commercial alleys extending from the south and east from the Great Mosque towards the ancient citadel. The souks''—lined with grocery and clothing stores, and workshops for carpenters, artisans, cobblers, metalworkers and knife-sharpeners—are busiest in the evening.

Other landmarks include the Great Mosque of al-Nuri. Originally a pagan temple dedicated to El-Gabal, it was consecrated as the Church of Saint John the Baptist under the Byzantines. Later, it was established as a Friday mosque during the Islamic Arab rule of Homs. The Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque has been considered "the only edifice of any real note" in Homs, and was built in the last few years of Ottoman rule in Syria during the 1900s. The mosque is named after early Arab general Khalid ibn al-Walid, whose tomb is located within the building.

The Um al-Zennar Church ("Church of the Virgin's Girdle") was built in 1852 atop an earlier church dating back to the 4th century, and perhaps 59 AD. The other prominent church in Homs is the 5th-century Church of Saint Elian, built in honour of Christian martyr Saint Elian, whose tomb is located in the crypt.

The Citadel of Homs is situated on one of the largest urban tells of Syria. It has been archaeologically neglected because of military occupation until recent years. The tell dates back at least to the Early Bronze Age. The extant Islamic-style walls were built during the Ayyubid period and the Mamluk sultan Baybars subsequently carried out restorations. All of this work is testified by inscriptions although without exception, they are lost. In 1994, a joint Syrian-British team studied the Citadel of Homs, recording the remains of the walls and towers.

## Twin towns – sister cities

Homs is twinned with:

- Belo Horizonte, Brazil
- Kayseri, Turkey
- Yazd, Iran

## See also

- Cities and towns during the Syrian Civil War
- List of cities in Syria
- List of people from Homs
- Timeline of Homs

City in western Syria, ancient Emesa

Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC


Kaweah River

The Kaweah River is a river draining the southern Sierra Nevada in Tulare County, California in the United States. Fed primarily by high elevation snowmelt along the Great Western Divide, the Kaweah begins as four forks in Sequoia National Park, where the watershed is noted for its alpine scenery and its dense concentrations of giant sequoias, the largest trees on Earth. It then flows in a southwest direction to Lake Kaweah – the only major reservoir on the river – and into the San Joaquin Valley, where it diverges into multiple channels across an alluvial plain around Visalia. With its Middle Fork headwaters starting at almost 13,000 feet (4,000 m) above sea level, the river has a vertical drop of nearly two and a half miles (4.0 km) on its short run to the San Joaquin Valley, making it one of the steepest river drainages in the United States. Although the main stem of the Kaweah is only 33.6 miles (54.1 km) long, its total length including headwaters and lower branches is nearly 100 miles (160 km).

The lower course of the river and its many distributaries – including the St. John's River and Mill Creek – form the Kaweah Delta, a productive agricultural region spanning more than 300,000 acres (120,000 ha). Before the diversion of its waters for irrigation, the river flowed into Tulare Lake, the now dry terminal sink of a large endorheic basin in the southern San Joaquin Valley, also fed by the Kern and Tule Rivers and southern branches of the Kings River.

The Yokuts and Western Mono are the main Native American groups in the Kaweah River basin, which was explored by the Spanish in the early 1800s and heavily logged after the 1850s by American colonists, before its upper reaches became part of Sequoia National Park in 1890.

## Etymology

The name "Kaweah" (commonly rendered as /kəˈwiːə/ kə-WEE-ə; the traditional pronunciation is /ˈɡɑːwiːhɑː/ GAH-wee-hah) comes from a native Yokutsan ethnonym for the Kaweah tribelet, traditionally said to mean "crow cry," from gá "raven" and wea "to weep." Frank F. Latta traced the etymology of gá to an onomatopoeia of a corvid's call, cf. "caw". An informant for Latta, Aida Icho, provided an idiom related to the allegedly quarrelsome nature of the (by then extinct) Kaweah:

> Gawea been gone long time. Now, when crow come in tree and quarrel, we say, Gáwea, he ahm tahnse [The Gáwea have come back].”

## Course

The Kaweah River originates along the Great Western Divide, a chain of 13,000-foot (4,000 m) peaks in the middle of Sequoia National Park. The divide separates the Kaweah drainage from the Kern River drainage to the east. The Middle Fork, sometimes considered part of the main stem, flows southwest from the confluence of Lone Pine Creek and Hamilton Creek, whose lake sources lie at or above 12,000 feet (3,700 m) in the Mount Stewart area. The Marble Fork begins in a high plateau area known as the Tableland and drops 1,200 feet (370 m) over a glacial headwall, forming Tokopah Falls, before flowing west past Lodgepole Village and turning south. The two forks join at the bottom of a deep gorge directly below Moro Rock to form the main stem of the Kaweah River.

The Kaweah River flows in a southwest direction, paralleled by Highway 198 in its narrow canyon. A short distance outside Sequoia National Park it picks up the East Fork, which originates above 9,000 feet (2,700 m) elevation in the Mineral King valley, from the left. It continues past the town of Three Rivers, where it receives the North Fork, which begins in the Grant Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park. The South Fork enters from the left before the river empties into Lake Kaweah, the reservoir formed by Terminus Dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Terminus Dam, a 255-foot (78 m) high earthfill dam, has the primary purpose of flood control but also supplies water for irrigation and hydroelectricity. Below the dam the Kaweah River passes Lemon Cove, receives Dry Creek (also known as Lime Kiln Creek) from the right and flows into the San Joaquin Valley where it divides into several major distributaries.

At the McKay Point Dam, the St. John's River splits off to the northwest, making a wide loop around Visalia before becoming Cross Creek north of Goshen, from where it flows south. The main channel of the Kaweah River continues to the southwest through farmland, with Outside Creek and Deep Creek splitting to the south before the Kaweah itself divides into Mill Creek and Packwood Creek. Mill Creek continues westward through Visalia, and Packwood Creek skirts to the south of the city, terminating in a small flood control basin. Mill Creek ends at a confluence with Cross Creek, which flows southward to the old Tulare Lake bed near Corcoran, joining a channel carrying water from the Tule River. The Kaweah Delta region, as defined by the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District, covers about 340,000 acres (140,000 ha) in Tulare and Kings Counties; the main cities are Visalia and Tulare.

The length of the Kaweah River is 33.6 miles (54.1 km) between the confluence of the Middle and Marble Forks and the bifurcation of Mill and Packwood Creeks. However, including its tributaries and distributaries, the river is much longer. Mill Creek (the largest distributary stream) flows westward for 25.1 miles (40.4 km) to Cross Creek, for a total distance of 58.7 miles (94.5 km). Including the upstream Middle Fork, which is about 15 mi (24 km) long, and the length of Cross Creek below Mill Creek, which is 21.7 miles (34.9 km), some water in the Kaweah system flows 95 miles (153 km) from the head of the Middle Fork to the Tulare Lake bed.

Most of the Kaweah River's runoff comes from the mountain watershed above Visalia, which covers a total of 658 square miles (1,700 km2). Including all the lands drained and crossed by the river's many distributaries down to the Tulare Lake bed, the Kaweah River hydrologic region covers 1,523 square miles (3,940 km2). The annual runoff of the Kaweah River between 1975 and 1995 was 443,000 acre-feet (546,000,000 m3), or about 600 cubic feet per second (17 m3/s). The river's highest flows are during the peak snowmelt months of May and June; winter flows are usually more of a trickle, although the river often experiences flooding during rainstorms. Most of the water is diverted above Visalia for irrigation and groundwater recharge. With the exception of agricultural wastewater, water rarely flows any further downstream except in wet years. Extremely large storms can temporarily refill Tulare Lake, as occurred most recently in 2023.

## Natural features and environment

Due to its steep fall from the Sierra Nevada to the San Joaquin Valley, the Kaweah River passes through a wide range of climate and vegetation zones in a relatively short distance. Historically, the lower Kaweah flowed into a vast area of seasonally flooded wetlands surrounding Tulare Lake, almost all of which have been diked and drained for agriculture. The Kaweah historically formed a large overflow area east of Visalia known as the "Visalia Swamp" and in areas west of Visalia stream channels were poorly defined, often simply disappearing into the marsh lands during periods of high water. The foothill zone is characterized mostly by grassland and rangeland; California oak woodland occurs along the Kaweah River and its perennial tributaries, although its range has been much reduced since Native American times.

Further upstream and higher in elevation, the watershed is mostly mixed coniferous forest (pines and firs). The largest concentrations of giant sequoias, which grow only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, are found in this section of the Kaweah watershed at mean elevations of 6,600 feet (2,000 m), although specimens have been found as low as 2,800 feet (850 m). The Kaweah watershed includes Giant Forest, the most visited and accessible of all the sequoia groves, located on the divide between the Middle and Marble Forks; it includes the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world by volume. Redwood Mountain Grove, the largest sequoia grove in the world at 3,100 acres (1,300 ha), and 21 other groves are also located in the Kaweah watershed. A relatively small portion of the Kaweah basin is high, craggy alpine country typical of the southern Sierra; such treeless, lake-studded areas of exposed granite are mostly found along the crest of the Great Western Divide.

Today, mule deer are the largest wild animal inhabiting the valley and foothill area; historically, large herds of tule elk frequented the area, but their habitat in the Kaweah Delta has been almost eliminated by agriculture. There are many species of foxes, wildcats, squirrels, and rabbits including the endemic San Joaquin kit fox, San Joaquin antelope squirrel, and others. California grizzly bear and beaver were once common to the area but were hunted or trapped out entirely by the early 1900s. The mountain areas continue to provide habitat for black bears, mule deer, and bighorn sheep, and the Kaweah River above Three Rivers has native rainbow trout and introduced brown trout and bass. In alpine areas above the tree line, small mammals such as marmots and pika are common.

## History

The Kaweah River watershed was originally inhabited by the indigenous Yokuts people of the Central Valley. By at least 3,000 years ago, a group known as the Wukchumni had permanent settlements along the river. The greatest concentration of Native American settlements was along the foothill reach of the Kaweah River, in what is today Three Rivers and Lake Kaweah. The Wukchumni spent summers hunting game and gathering herbs along the East Fork, and they traded with the Paiute peoples of the Great Basin. Around 700 to 500 years ago, the Western Mono came to settle in the region as well.

Oak trees grew in abundance along low-elevation, permanent streams and provided the staple food of acorns, which were used to make cakes and bread. Native Americans ground acorns into a fine mush using holes in the local granite bedrock as mortars. Permanent winter settlements in the foothills consisted of pit houses thatched with tules (vast amounts of which once grew in the marshes of the Kaweah delta) up to 31 feet (9.4 m) in diameter. Hospital Rock, a flat next to the Middle Fork, was used as a camp possibly as early as the 1300s AD.

Spanish explorers came to the Kaweah River area in the early 1800s, although it is not clear who first explored the Kaweah Delta (possibly the Gabriel Moraga party in 1806). Early Spanish names for the river included Rio de San Gabriel and Rio San Francisco. Several such expeditions were sent into the region, in order to conscript Native Americans into the mission system. Father Pedro Muñoz wrote that the Kaweah would be a good place for a mission, but none were ever established there, because it was too far from the coast and could not be easily defended. In the following decades, Native American resistance to Spanish colonial government prompted many military raids, killing many of the natives who had not already succumbed to European diseases.

After California became a U.S. state, the California Gold Rush drew some prospectors to the Kaweah in the 1850s, but not much gold mining occurred in the area. During this time, the Kaweah was often known as the "River Francis", a corruption of the old Spanish name. Hale Tharp, a stockman and early settler in Three Rivers, discovered the Giant Forest in 1858 with the help of Native American guides. In 1861 Tharp returned to this area between the Middle and Marble forks of the Kaweah River, using a hollowed-out fallen sequoia log (Tharp's Log) as a cabin. In 1873, a silver boom in Mineral King attracted thousands of people to the high mountain valley along the East Fork. The peak of mining had passed by 1882, when the Empire Mine (owned by state senator Thomas Fowler, who invested most of his fortune in the mine) went under. Small operations continued, sporadically, into the late 1920s. After the end of silver mining, Mineral King became a popular summer resort.

The one resource extraction industry that succeeded in the Kaweah basin was timber; many logging camps sprang up in the heavily forested western slopes of the Sierra, including in the watershed's sequoia groves. The Kaweah Colony was a utopian socialist community founded in 1886, along the Kaweah River in what is now Sequoia National Park. Although giant sequoia wood is generally too soft to be useful in construction, many sequoias were felled between the 1860s and the 1880s when the U.S. government began establishing timber reserves in the area, under pressure from conservationists, including John Muir, who visited the Kaweah's Marble Fork and named Giant Forest in 1875. Logging mostly ended after Sequoia National Park was founded in 1890; the bill establishing the park was pushed through in part due to the actions of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which saw the Kaweah colony as a competitor to logging operations that it owned elsewhere. Some settlers in the Kaweah Colony attempted to continue their operations but were later convicted of illegal logging, after which the colony dissolved in 1892.

The Kaweah Delta (historically also known as the "Four Creeks area", after the four major branches of the Kaweah River) was one of the earliest places in the San Joaquin Valley to be populated and farmed by U.S. settlers, although before the construction of Terminus Dam the entire area was frequently flooded; the Great Flood of 1862 temporarily changed the course of the river, creating the distributary today known as St. John's River. Agriculture began in the Kaweah Delta around 1864 when a group of local farmers dug the Consolidated Peoples' Ditch. The people of Visalia hired Native Americans to extend a canal from Mill Creek to power the expanding settlement's flour mill. In addition, multiple channels had to be dug to redirect the flow of St. John's River back into the Kaweah, which had been blocked by sediment during the 1862 flood. It was not until after the Wright Act of 1887, however, that farming expanded significantly. The Wright Act allowed the formation of the Tulare Irrigation District, which began to establish a network of canals across the Kaweah Delta. Surface water provided the main supply as late as 1900, after which the area's abundant groundwater reserves were pumped at increasing rates. Tulare Lake disappeared by the early 1900s, and by the 1930s, agricultural development had surpassed the capacity of local water resources.

In the 1960s Disney proposed to construct a ski resort in Mineral King, which would have brought one of the most intense developments in the history of the upper Kaweah watershed. The resort would have included 22 ski lifts, a 1,030-room hotel, ten restaurants, and a railroad along the canyon of the East Fork Kaweah River to transport visitors from a parking area further down the mountain. Environmentalists fought against the proposal for many years, and in 1978 the National Parks and Recreation Act designated the area as part of Sequoia National Park.

## River modifications

In order to make the Kaweah Delta suitable for agriculture and eventually urban development, the tangle of diverging seasonal channels and marshes had to be drained and diked extensively. As early as the 1870s local irrigation companies were dredging some creeks and blocking off side channels in order to direct floodwater away from farms. A major early 20th century project was the channelization of Mill Creek, which runs through the middle of Visalia and posed a major flooding threat before it was straightened, deepened and widened in 1910 at a cost of \$70,000. Dams were built in the 1920s and 1930s at McKays Point to divide water flow between the Kaweah and St. Johns Rivers, to satisfy downstream water rights. Today, the Kaweah Delta has very little resemblance to historic times; most of the streams have either disappeared or been channelized, and Tulare Lake itself is now a dry, diked basin that only very occasionally floods.

The Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District manages the distribution of water to irrigation districts and city water districts over a 340,000-acre (140,000 ha) service area. The primary crops grown in the district are cotton, various fruits, nuts, alfalfa, and other field crops. In addition to surface water, the district utilizes Central Valley Project water from the Friant-Kern Canal, which delivers water from the San Joaquin River to the Tulare Basin. Water can be turned out into either the Kaweah or St. Johns rivers, augmenting the water supply available to Kaweah Delta users. Groundwater is the other important source of water supply for the basin. The local aquifer has suffered from overdraft for many decades with an estimated annual deficit of 40,000 acre-feet (49,000,000 m3) between pumping and replenishment. In order to increase the rate of groundwater recharge, more than 40 recharge basins or spreading grounds totaling 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) have been constructed throughout the district, which allow floodwaters to percolate into the ground.

Hydroelectric power development on the Kaweah River began when the Mount Whitney Power Company built a diversion, flume and the Kaweah No. 1 powerhouse on the East Fork in 1899. In 1905 it completed Kaweah No. 2 powerhouse on the Middle Fork. The company then applied for permission to construct a third power plant on the Middle Fork inside Sequoia National Park, which was approved partly because at the time, this was an infrequently visited area of the park. The Kaweah No. 3 plant was completed by 1913, and was followed by more plans to construct a reservoir at Wolverton and at least two additional power plants. The Kaweah plants brought electricity to Visalia for the first time, and the power was also used by farmers to pump groundwater. However, construction of the Wolverton dam was thwarted by bad foundation rock and the other power plants were also never built. Taken over by Southern California Edison in 1917, the system today consists of six dams, three powerhouses, three forebays and many miles of concrete and wooden flumes. The Kaweah No. 3 plant is an eligible property for the National Register of Historic Places.

Terminus Dam was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1962 to help relieve the Kaweah Delta's chronic flooding. Prior to damming, the river could reach very high flows during winter storms, with a maximum of 80,700 cubic feet per second (2,290 m3/s) in December 1955. However, the capacity of the main channel of the Kaweah River is only 5,500 cubic feet per second (160 m3/s), and its distributaries have an even lower capacity. Four years after the dam's completion, it prevented \$19.6 million of damage during a single storm in December 1966. However, the capacity of the reservoir, Lake Kaweah, was too small to control the most severe floods, and was so for many years until the completion of a spillway enhancement project in 2004. Six huge fuse gates, the largest of their type in the world, were added to the dam; the reservoir can now safely hold 185,600 acre-feet (228,900,000 m3) of water, an increase of 30 percent from the original capacity.

## Recreation

All the forks of the Kaweah River are located in Sequoia National Park, which receives more than 1.2 million recreational visitors each year. The river is a major park attraction for boating and fishing, but can be "extremely hazardous" during high water in the spring and summer. Several commercial outfitters serve the traditional Class IV section of the Kaweah River between the Pumpkin Hollow bridge (near the park entrance) and Lake Kaweah. Advanced kayakers frequent the Class V Middle Fork at Hospital Rock, further upstream in Sequoia National Park; the North Fork is a wilderness run, requiring boaters to carry all their equipment to the put-in. The river is free-flowing above Lake Kaweah so the rafting season depends entirely on the natural snowmelt, typically between April and July.

Access to the Kaweah River for fishing, swimming and water play can be difficult in the Three Rivers area, because most of the river banks are on private property. In Sequoia National Park the river flows at the bottom of a deep canyon and can also be difficult to reach. The river just above Lake Kaweah is publicly accessible at the Slick Rock Recreation Area; however, this location is inundated most summers when the level of Lake Kaweah is high. Slick Rock, known to locals as "Boulder Beach", has rock climbing areas and historic Native American bedrock mortars. Lake Kaweah itself offers shoreline fishing and flatwater boating. The upper South Fork in Sequoia National Park has good fishing for wild rainbow trout, although a long hike is required to reach it. A California fishing license is required for visitors older than age 16 in the park.

The upper Kaweah is also home to many hiking trails. Day hikes include the walk along Marble Fork to 1,200-foot (370 m) Tokopah Falls, and the Mineral King area along the East Fork also has a number of short trails. Backpacking is popular on the High Sierra Trail, which runs from Giant Forest through the Middle Fork canyon, and summits the Great Western Divide via Kaweah Gap en route toward the John Muir Trail to Mount Whitney. The Bearpaw Meadow High Sierra Camp is located along the High Sierra Trail near the headwaters of the Middle Fork.

## See also

- List of rivers of California
- Wukchumni

River in the United States of America

Rivers of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California


2007 UAW-Ford 500

The 2007 UAW-Ford 500 was the 30th stock car race of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fourth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 7, 2007, at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, before a crowd of 155,000. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports won the 188-lap race starting from 34th position. His teammate Jimmie Johnson finished second and Dave Blaney was third.

The Car of Tomorrow debuted at a superspeedway, but it was heavily criticized for its lack of visibility, and drivers raised fears of becoming airborne if hit. Michael Waltrip won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying but was passed by Blaney by the end of the first lap. The race lead changed 42 times, with Denny Hamlin leading the most laps out of anybody else (40). Johnson took the lead after driving on the outside lane on lap 183. Johnson led as the final lap began, but Gordon went to the outside of the track, and was bump-drafted by Tony Stewart, allowing him to claim his fifth victory of the season, his sixth at Talladega Superspeedway, the 80th of his career, and he took over from Dale Earnhardt as the driver with the most restrictor plate wins, twelve.

The result advanced Gordon to the Drivers' Championship's lead, and his teammate Johnson (who led coming into the race) fell to second. The trio of Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick retained third through fifth. Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch gained one position each, and Kyle Busch fell from fourth to eighth after being caught up in a multi-car accident. Chevrolet increased their unassailable lead in the Manufacturers' Championship, while Ford, Dodge and Toyota continued to occupy the remaining three places with six races left in the season.

## Background

The UAW-Ford 500 was the 30th of 36 scheduled stock car races of the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fourth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 7, 2007, at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, a superspeedway that holds NASCAR races. The standard track at the speedway is a four-turn 2.66 mi (4.28 km) long superspeedway. The track's turns are banked at 33 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 16.5 degrees. The back stretch has a two-degree banking.

Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 5,506 points, with teammate Jeff Gordon second and Clint Bowyer third. Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick were fourth and fifth. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top twelve drivers competing for the 2007 Chase for the Nextel Cup. Chevrolet led the Manufacturers' Championship with 232 points, sixty ahead of Ford in second. Dodge with 147 points was 56 ahead of Toyota in fourth. Brian Vickers was the race's defending champion.

The UAW-Ford 500 marked the début of the Car of Tomorrow on a superspeedway. Teams started by using a 31/32 inch restrictor plate which was expected to increase horsepower by 75 hp (56 kW) to 80 hp (60 kW). Furthermore, the wing angle was established at 10 degrees, and the wicker height was set at 1 in (25 mm) to add drag. Further changes were determined by the performance of the cars if they reached an average speed of more than 200 mph (320 km/h). NASCAR mandated teams to run flat side plates instead of the a curved side plate, and some cars had to make minor adjustments to pass pre-race inspection. Nextel Cup Series Director John Darby stated NASCAR changed the wording of the regulations to provide clarity and to have a starting point in controlling top speeds, "Basically, it says we're going to start out with this size of a restrictor plate, and if everything proves out OK, we'll leave it, but the ultimate restrictor-plate size won't be determined until the conclusion of final Cup practice." Drivers spent one and a half days in mid-September testing the Car of Tomorrow at the track.

There were two changes of driver heading into the race. It was announced that open-wheel driver Jacques Villeneuve would début in the No. 27 Bill Davis Racing car five weeks earlier than planned. Villeneuve planned to compete in the ARCA Re/Max and Craftsman Truck Series races at Talladega, but was granted approval to race in the Nextel Cup Series after testing of the Car of Tomorrow at the track. Villeneuve said he was delighted to debut in the Nextel Cup Series: "It's perfect. I'm really happy that NASCAR has given me its approval so quickly, and having run Talladega with the Cup drivers, I'm really looking forward to it. It's a huge step in my learning process." Mike Wallace replaced his younger brother Kenny Wallace in the No. 88 Robert Yates Racing car while the team's regular driver Ricky Rudd continued to recover from a shoulder injury.

## Practice and qualifying

Two 60-minute practice sessions were held on the Friday before Sunday's race. Stewart set the fastest time in the first practice session with a lap of 49.118 seconds. Jeff Gordon was second-fastest. Positions three through ten were filled by Ken Schrader, Robby Gordon, Kyle Petty, Kasey Kahne, David Stremme, Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle, and Burton. Hamiln was forbidden by NASCAR to partake in its closing minutes because he was observed bump-drafting other cars. Darby explained that Hamlin was the most aggressive driver out of all those cautioned by NASCAR. Later that day, Stewart led the second practice session with a lap of 49.347 seconds; Paul Menard was 0.045 seconds slower in second. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Truex, Burton, Jeff Green, Tony Raines, and Johnny Sauter were in positions three through ten. After practice, drivers complained of hindered visibility at the front of the car, due to a larger cockpit and spoiler. They felt this had the potential to cause a multi-car accident, and were worried about the possibility of getting airborne if hit by others.

Fifty-one cars were entered in the qualifier on Saturday afternoon, according to NASCAR's qualifying procedure, forty-three were allowed to race. Each driver ran two laps, with the starting order determined by the competitor's fastest times. Toyotas took five of the first six spots, as Michael Waltrip clinched the fourth pole position of his career, and his first since the 2005 Pocono 500, with a time of 50.648 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Dave Blaney whose lap was 0.062 seconds slower. Vickers qualified in third. Fourth was Joe Nemechek, and David Reutimann fifth. The next three spots on the grid was composed of drivers who were required to qualify on time or risk missing the race: Villeneuve, John Andretti, and Bobby Labonte. Kahne and Elliott Sadler completed the top ten. Of the drivers in the chase, Stewart started 11th, Truex 13th, Hamlin 18th, and Johnson 19th. The eight drivers who failed to qualify were A. J. Allmendinger, Boris Said, Scott Riggs, Sam Hornish Jr., Jeremy Mayfield, Sterling Marlin, Ward Burton and Kevin Lepage. Kurt Busch and David Ragan's cars were found to be too low at the front during post-qualifying inspection, and were mandated to start at the back of the field. Afterward, Waltrip said, "I felt confident yesterday that we would make the race. Our qualifying lap was faster than what we ran in practice. If I only had to worry about my car, I would've been happier."

### Qualifying results

## Race

Live television coverage of the race on ABC began at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were mostly sunny with the air temperature at 89 °F (32 °C); a ten percent chance of rain was forecast. A moment of silence was held in honor of former NASCAR president Bill France Jr. Frank Stark of Raceway Ministries began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Miss University of Alabama Stephanie Shelton performed the national anthem, and Dave Sparks, an employee of the race's sponsor, commanded the drivers to start their engines. During the pace laps, McMurray moved to the rear of the field because he changed his engine, and Casey Mears did the same for illegal adjustments to his car.

The race started at 2:21 p.m. Waltrip led the pack on the run to the first corner, but Blaney got ahead of him to take the first position at the end of the first lap. On lap two, Labonte made it three-abreast going to the finish line, and took the lead, before losing it to Vickers on the following lap. Waltrip steered right to reclaim first place on lap four, and held it for the next lap when Labonte returned to the head of the pack. The sixth lap had Robby Gordon pushed by other cars to become the new leader, which he retained until Vickers returned to the front on lap nine. In the meantime, Hamlin moved from eighteenth to fourth. He took the lead for the first time with assistance from Andretti on lap 12. The first caution was necessitated on lap 17 as Andretti's right-front tire blew, removing one of his car's fenders, and scattering debris on the track. Most of the leaders, including Hamlin, made pit stops for fuel, tyres and car adjustments. Petty led the field for one lap before making his stop on the 20th lap, and Johnson was the leader on the next lap before doing the same.

Hamlin led the field back up to speed at the lap-22 restart, and was followed by Kahne, Truex, and Sadler. Three laps later, Harvick provided Sadler assistance to claim the lead on the left lane. However, Sadler lost the lead to Hamlin on lap 27, as some competitors created three-abreast racing by forming a middle lane. The outside lane was used by Truex to gain first place on lap 30. Dale Earnhardt Jr. moved to the lead on the 31st lap. He maintained it for the next 27 laps as the first round of green flag pit stops commenced. After the pit stops, Hamlin regained the lead. On lap 63, David Gilliland collided with Biffle at turn four, causing Biffle to spin sideways. Biffle's front-left tire went flat, and the front of Gilliland's vehicle sustained light damage. The second caution was waved to restore order. Some cars in the middle of the pack went down pit road to stop for fuel and tyres. Gilliland's mechanics made repairs to his car. The race restarted on lap 67 as Hamlin led Stewart and Kyle Busch in a single file line.

Waltrip returned to the lead on lap 88, as Reutimann got into second by joining the pack of cars on the bottom line. Reutimann passed Waltrip for first on the following lap. On lap 91, Earnhardt led once again by driving on the outside lane. Two laps later, Jeff Burton's engine failed, laying oil and debris on the track, and calling for the race's third caution as he returned to pit road to retire. Pit stops for fuel and tyres were made by several drivers during the caution. Waltrip led the restarted race on lap 96. He held it until Hamlin took it as the lead group of cars went three-abreast on lap 98. Stewart became the leader for the first time by driving on the outside lane one lap later. Three abreast-racing temporarily ended on lap 101, as the main pack of cars fell into a single line behind Stewart. Sadler took the lead with assistance from Kahne on the inside line on the 109th lap. Four laps later, Truex's engine blew, leaving oil on the track, and requiring a fourth caution.

Most drivers, including Sadler, elected to make pit stops for fuel and tyres under the caution period. Bowyer and Sadler each led for one lap before making their pit stops. Sadler returned to the lead for the restart on lap 116 as the pack formed into one single file. On lap 132, Villeneuve scraped the wall alongside the track, but he continued without significant damage. Labonte received assistance from Stewart to move past Sadler for the lead on the 133rd lap. On the following lap, Stewart took the lead for himself. Vickers passed Stewart on the outside to claim the first position on lap 135. Lap 136 saw the race's fifth caution: Earnhardt's laid oil on the track after his engine failed. Dale Jarrett attempted to avoid other cars, but he sustained damage to the front-right corner of his car, stopping on the apron. Vickers and the rest of the leaders chose to make pit stops for fuel and tyres while the caution was out. Sauter won the race off pit road, and led at the lap 140 restart. Jeff Gordon was required to drive down pit road as soon as the race resumed for a team equipment penalty in his pit stall.

The main pack of cars again formed a single line as Stewart returned to first place on the 141st lap. On lap 145, a multi-car accident prompted the sixth caution. Labonte lost control of his car in turn four, and slid down into Kyle Busch. He then ricocheted into Robby Gordon, Reutimann slid as Ragan had no space to negotiate through and ran into him. Other drivers involved in the collision were McMurray, Kenseth, Menard, Stremme, Vickers and Hamlin. Most drivers, including Stewart, made pit stops for fuel to allow them to complete the race. Raines led the field at the restart on lap 150, On the next lap, Ryan Newman received assistance from his teammate Kurt Busch to take the lead. Stewart overtook Newman to retake first on lap 152. The seventh caution was waved one lap later for Schrader whose right-front tire blew, causing him to clout the turn four wall.

Stewart kept the lead at the lap-156 restart. Another six laps passed until the eighth caution was called for, when Petty's tire blew and he crashed into the turn three wall. As with the previous restart, Stewart maintained the lead on lap 166. Blaney and Johnson formed a bottom line of around seven cars in an attempt to gain on Stewart. However, the top five of Stewart, Newman, Kurt Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Kahne temporarily split from the rest of the pack by the 173rd lap. This was the case until the next lap when Stewart tried to block on both lanes, but Newman found a way past him to reclaim the lead. On lap 176, the ninth (and final) caution was waved as Waltrip's right-front tire blew in turn one. He clipped the rear of Sadler's car, and then clouted a wall; Sadler spun and collected Biffle and Raines. Newman led the field at the restart on lap 180 with Busch second and Montoya third. Stewart turned onto the bottom lane so he could try and establish a second line of cars This proved successful as the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Johnson and Jeff Gordon were on the bottom lane, and caught Newman on the 182nd lap.

Newman lost the lead to Johnson on the following lap. Stewart tried to pass Johnson on lap 184, but could not do so as no other driver steered to the middle lane to provide him with assistance. The right lane had Newman and his teammate Kurt Busch driving on it. The two caught Johnson and his teammate Jeff Gordon on the 185th lap. Stewart linked up with Busch and Newman the lap after, and went to the outside with Jeff Gordon and Johnson remaining on the inside. On the final lap, Jeff Gordon turned right, and got in between his teammate Johnson and Newman and Kurt Busch. As Johnson went to block his teammate, Stewart bump-drafted Jeff Gordon to give the latter the lead, which he held to clinch his fifth victory of the season, the 80th of his career, and a season sweep of victories at Talladega Superspeedway. He also took his sixth win at Talladega Superspeedway, and surpassed Dale Earnhardt to become the new all-time wins leader at restrictor-plate tracks with twelve. Johnson finished second, Blaney came third, Hamlin took fourth and Newman placed fifth. Mears, Kurt Busch, Stewart, Raines and Reed Sorenson completed the top ten. The race had a total of nine cautions and 42 lead changes by 22 different drivers. Hamlin led five times for a total of 40 laps, more than any other competitor.

### Post-race comments

Jeff Gordon appeared in Victory Lane after his victory lap to celebrate his fifth win of the season in front of the crowd of 155,000 people; the win earned him \$246,036. He called it "the hardest three-quarters of a race that I've ever had to run before," after qualifying was influential in determining his strategy for the race, "We avoided the wrecks and all of a sudden found ourselves in the top 15 with about 25–30 to go, and we held on there. What I don't understand is how I got by my teammate. I got a couple of pushes. When it got three-wide, I thought, 'This is my opportunity.' Luckily when I got high, and Jimmie tried to block me, the 20 was there and had nowhere to go. He's the one who pushed me to the front." Johnson said his second-place finish was not something he was happy with since he was passed by his teammate, "To get that close and not win is a letdown. There must have been stuff going on behind me that I couldn't see, but Jeff could in his mirror, and he pulled up and got in front of the 20 [Stewart] and was able to take advantage of that push." Third-placed Blaney revealed his team's objective was to preserve his car and return to the top 35 in points, "I didn't want to do anything to put it in harm's way. I was way more cautious than I probably wanted to be. I just got with the right group of cars there at the end."

Reaction to the Car of Tomorrow's debut at a superspeedway was negative. Newman stated his feeling that the racing "not very good" as he observed the single file driving, which he felt was not racing to him, "I hope it wasn’t what NASCAR intended with this car. I’m not complaining about the car because the old car did relatively the same thing. We gotta do something where we can race a little bit. I mean I was driving around with one hand running 15th just riding, on and off the gas. It’s not racing. If we’re going to do that why don’t we just make it a 100-mile race and we’ll tear them all up in the first 50?” Jeff Gordon spoke of how boredom affected him during the race, and called for more work on the car to prevent single-file racing, "I think we would never race like that if we didn't have the closing rate that we have, and [with] the bump-drafting being so drastic that I think we need to make some adjustments here." Kenseth said his strategy was to run at the rear of the pack, and believed spectators did not want to see that, adding, "We rode around for about 350–400 miles and then sooner or later you’ve got to go race and try to get a partner up there and see how your car is gonna handle. When we decided to go up there, we got up to the third or fourth row on the inside and then the leader wrecked. When the leader wrecks, there’s not a whole lot you can do to miss it.”

Two days after the race, Chip Ganassi Racing was given penalties for Sorenson's car. The penalties for "actions detrimental to stock car racing"; "car, car parts, components and/or equipment used do not conform to NASCAR rules" and for the front of the car failing to meet the minimum ride height restrictions as imposed by the regulations for the Car of Tomorrow during post-race inspection, included a \$25,000 fine for crew chief Jimmy Elledge, who was placed on probation until December 31, 2007. Team owner Chip Ganassi and Sorenson were penalized 25 points in the Owners and Drivers' Championships. The result gave Jeff Gordon a six-point lead over teammate Johnson in the Drivers' Championship. Bowyer, Stewart and Harvick stayed in positions third through fifth. Edwards and Kurt Busch advanced to sixth and seventh, while Kyle Busch, Hamlin, and Truex completed out the top ten placings. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet (with 271 points) increased its unassailable lead. Ford maintained second with 175 points, Dodge stayed in third with 149 points, and Toyota retained fourth with 97 points with six races left in the season. The race took three hours, 29 minutes and 11 seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 0.066 seconds.

### Race results

## Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Manufacturers' Championship standings

- Note: Only the top twelve positions are included for the driver standings. These drivers qualified for the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

30th race of 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup series

October 2007 sports events in the United States