Most of the early Syrian immigrants came from Christian villages around Mount Lebanon. According to historian Philip Hitti, approximately 90,000 "Syrians" arrived in the United States between 1899 and 1919. An estimated 1,000 official entries per year came from the governorates of Damascus and Aleppo, which are governorates in modern-day Syria, in the period between 1900 and 1916. Early immigrants settled mainly in northeastern United States, in the cities of New York City, Boston and Detroit and the Paterson, New Jersey area.