Ile Rouad, presently known as Arwad, is located two miles south of the coast of Latakia, Syria.

Arwad Island also called Arados, Arvad, Arpad, Arphad, Antiochia, Rouad, and Ruad Island is Syria’s only inhabited island. The island is no bigger than 0.2 km² with being 800 meters from northwest to southeast corner and about 500 meters wide.

The island was settled in the early 2nd millennium BC by the Phoenicians. Under Phoenician control, it became an independent kingdom called Arvad Aradus, and it´s thought that it was one of the very first of the first known examples of a republic.