SYRIA

• Demonym : Syrian
• Government : Presidential republic
• Independence : 17 April 1946
• Capital City : Damascus
• Largest City : Aleppo
• Area : 185,180 km²
• Population : 20 000 000 - year 2007
• Races : Greeks, Romans, Armenians, Assyrians, Charkas, Turks, Kurds and Arabs
• Religions : Muslims 75% - Christians 18% - 7% Druze and other
• Languages : Syriac, French, English, Arabic
• Calling code : +963

Name of Syria...

The name Syria comes from the ancient Greek name for the land of Aram at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea between Egypt and Arabia to the south and Cilicia to the north, stretching inland to include Mesopotamia, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including from west to east Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene, "formerly known as Assyria" (N.H. 5.66). By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into a number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea (or "Judea" and later renamed Palestina in AD 135—the region corresponding to the modern states of Israel and Jordan and the Palestinian territories) in the extreme southwest, Phoenicia corresponding to Lebanon, with Damascena to the inland side of Phoenicia, Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") south of the Eleutheris river, and Yugoslavia.