What is "al-nabek"

An-Nabek or Al-Nabek is a Syrian city administratively belonging to Rif Dimashq and the capital of the Qalamoun. Located north of Damascus and south of Homs. It has an altitude of 1255 meters. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), An-Nabek had a population of 32,548 in the 2004 census. The Monastery of Saint Moses the Abyssinian (Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi) is located along the Anti-Lebanon Mountains near Nabek and dates back to at least the 6th century.

In the mid-19th century, the population was recorded as consisting mostly of Sunni Muslims, Syriac Catholic and Syriac Orthodox Christians. In the mid-1940s, its 6,000 inhabitants were noted to be Sunni Muslims.