Al-Qaryatayn  Al-Qaryatayn (, ,) also spelled Karyatayn, Qaratin or Cariatein, is a town in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate located southeast of Homs. It is situated on an oasis in the Syrian Desert. Nearby localities include Tadmur (Palmyra) to the northeast, Furqlus to the north, al-Riqama and Dardaghan to the northwest, Mahin, Huwwarin and Sadad to the west, Qarah, Deir Atiyah and al-Nabk to the southwest and Jayrud to the south. "Al-Qaryatayn" translates as "the two villages". According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Qaryatayn had a population of 14,208 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the al-Qaryatayn "nahiyah" ("subdistrict") which consists of three localities with a collective population of 16,795 in 2004. Its inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims and Christians. The City was known first as "HAZAR-ENAN" where it mentioned in many occasions in the holy bible. A site on the northern boundary of “the land of Canaan.” (Nu 34:2, 7-10) Ezekiel referred to Hazar-enon (Hazar-enan), along with Damascus and Hamath, in his forevision of the territory of Israel. (Eze 47:13, 17; 48:1) A positive identification of the site cannot be made at this time. However, most scholars tentatively locate it at Qaryatein, about 120 km (75 mi) NE of Damascus on the road to Palmyra. During the Islamic conquests, Khalid Ibn Al-Walid and his army landed near HAZAR-ENAN, and the name "Nuzala" was given to the place where the army landed. The word "Nuzala" in Arabic means "the place where a person land". With time, this place has become a small village, and merged with the HAZAR-ENAN and formed one village and was called "Al-Qaryatayn" which means two villages in Arabic. The HAZAR-ENAN before the Islamic conquest was completely Aramaic, and its inhabitants spoke Aramaic, and even now, most of the surrounding areas have Aramaic names. There are numerous Greco-Roman-era buildings located in al-Qaryatayn, including an extensive sanitarium known as "Hamaam Balkis" ("Bath of Sheba").