Ain al-Barda

Ain al-Barda (Arabic: عين الباردة; ALA-LC: ‘Ayn al-Bārdah, which means "cold spring") is a village in Syria, located 55 kilometres west of Homs and 200 kilometres northwest of Damascus.

Nestled on the Sayeh mountain, at 850 metres above sea level, the village overlooks the Wadi al-Nasara valley.

John Gardiner Kinnear described the village in an account of his journey throughout the Middle East in 1839: Last week T—— and I rode up to a beautiful secluded spot, some three or four hours from Beyrout [sic].

It is, as the Arabic name implies, a fountain of delightfully cold water, which, issuing in copious stream from the rocks, is received into a stone basin under the shade of a magnificent carob-tree.

The air is clear, cool, and refreshing after the sultry atmosphere of Beyrout; and the view over the lower heights covered with vines and olives mingling with the dark pine woods, to the wide expanse of the blue Mediterranean, is one of the most beautiful I ever beheld.

Al-`Ayn (the spring)