Dar‘ā — Dar‘ā Map Poster

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Dar‘ā Map Poster

Dar‘ā stands on the basalt plain of the Hauran in southern Syria, a short distance from the border with Jordan. From above, the city clearly splits into two parts. Daraa al-Balad, the old town, lies on one side. Daraa al-Mahatta, the newer district that grew up around the railway station, lies on the other. Between them runs a valley that separates the two street patterns.

The site is ancient and is generally identified with biblical Edrei. The old town has the tighter, irregular lanes of a long-settled place, centred on its historic Omari Mosque. The station quarter owes its origin to the Hejaz Railway in the early twentieth century, and its streets are straighter, wider and more regular. Around both halves, open farmland of the Hauran stretches in every direction.

A Dar‘ā map poster makes this double structure its subject. Two street patterns face each other across the valley: one organic and dense, the other planned and open. Main roads to Damascus and the border cross the plain toward the edges of the sheet. In black and white, the composition is clear and balanced, a portrait of a city defined by its crossroads position.