Homs is located in a strategic point between the Desert and the coast in a break between the mountains known as the Homs gap. It is an industrial city and Syria's most important oil-refining center. It is also a main center for sugar refining and has a plant for treating phosphates, one of Syria's largest exported products, mined in Palmyra. 

This city is very close to Tartous Syria's second port, and to the northern Lebanese border near Tripoli. It is also the usual stop for passengers traveling the long Aleppo-Damascus route. 

Homs does not offer much to tourists, as it has always been an industrial city. Although excursions to the crusader castle, Krak des Chevaliers and other sites are available from here.