Syria

I

Introduction

Syria (in Arabic, Suriyah), officially al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah as-Suriyah (Syrian Arab Republic), republic in the Middle East, bordered to the north by Turkey, to the east by Iraq, to the south by Jordan and Israel, and to the west by Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Syria has an area of about 185,180 sq km (71,498 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Damascus.

II

Land and Resources

Syria has an extreme east-to-west distance of about 830 km (515 mi) and an extreme north-to-south distance of about 740 km (460 mi). Along the Mediterranean coast, which is about 160 km (100 mi) long, is a narrow plain extending inland as far as 32 km (20 mi). Parallel to this plain is the Jabal an Nuşayrīyah, a narrow range of mountains and hills, south of which, along the border of Syria and Lebanon, are the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, the site of Mount Hermon, the highest point in the country at 2,814 m (9,232 ft).

The Anti-Lebanon range tapers off into a hilly region called the Golan Heights (captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War) in the south-western corner of Syria. Much of the rest of the country consists of a plateau, which is bisected in the north-east by the valley of the River Euphrates (known in Syria as Al Furāt). The plateau area north of the Euphrates is called the plain of al-Jazirah. The semicircular plateau area in the south-east is in the Syrian Desert.

A

Rivers and Lakes

The Euphrates, the longest river in Syria, flows diagonally across the country from Turkey in the north to Iraq in the east. The second longest river, the Orontes, originates in the Lebanese portion of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and flows north through western Syria to Turkey.

B

Climate

West of the Jabal an Nuşayrīyah, Syria has a Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Yearly rainfall ranges from about 510 to 1,020 mm (20 to 40 in) in the coastal area, from about 255 to 510 mm (10 to 20 in) between Aleppo and Damascus, and from 127 mm (5 in) to less than 25 mm (1 in) in the desert area in the south-east. Regional variations in temperature are comparatively slight. At Aleppo, in the north-west, the average August temperature is about 30° C (86° F) and the average January temperature is about 4.4° C (40° F). At Tudmur, in the central region at the edge of the Syrian Desert, the corresponding temperatures are about 30.8° C (87.5° F) and about 6.4° C (43.5° F).