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Syria
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
| Syrian Arab Republic | |||||
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| Anthem: Homet el Diyar | |||||
| [[Image:|250px|center|Location of Syria]] | |||||
| Capital (and largest city) | Damascus | ||||
| Official languages | Arabic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government | Single-party repulbic | ||||
| - President | Bashir al-Assad | ||||
| Independence | from France | ||||
| - First declaration | September 19361 | ||||
| - Second declaration | January 1 1944 | ||||
| - Recognized | April 17 1946 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total | 185,180 km² 71,479 sq mi | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - 2007 estimate | 19,747,586 (58th) | ||||
| - Density | 107/km² ({{{population_density_rank}}}) 276/sq mi | ||||
| HDI (2007) | ▲ 0.724 (medium) (109th) | ||||
| Currency | Syrian Pound (SYP)
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| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||||
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .sy | ||||
| Calling code | +963 | ||||
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in the Middle East. It borders Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, and Jordan to the southeast. Syria has a disputed border with Israel to the southwest, and part of it, the Golan Heights, is occupied by that country.
Syria has been an important center for millenia. Its capital, Damascus, may be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and it was an important center of the ancient and medieval Islamic worlds, serving as the capital of the Arab Umayyad dynasty. In modern times, Syria remains an important and influential Arab country.
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Geography
History
Ancient History
The land that today forms Syria has been inhabited since ancient times. Semitic peoples, such as the Phonecians and Arameans (the language of the latter, Aramaic, became the major spoken language in Syria and much of the Middle East), first entered the country. Empires such as the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians. In 332 BC, Syria, along with the rest of the Persian Empire, fell to Alexander the Great. It was ruled by various Greek-speaking dynasties until its conquest by the Romans in 63 BC. Syria remained under the control of the Romans, an their successors the Byzantines, until the 7th century AD. By the beginning of the 5th century AD, most of Syria had converted to Christianity.[1]
Islam and the Ummayyads
Later Islamic History
French Rule and Resistance
Independence
The United Arab Republic
A Decade of Revolutions
The al-Assad Era
Recent History
Culture
Demographics
Economy
References
- ↑ Drysdale, A. (1992). Syria. In K. A. Ranson (ED.) American Academic Encyclodpedia (Vol. 18 pp. 413). Danbury, CT: Grolier Inc.
