| The Syrian Arab Republic is a small country, which lies on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
With a total area of 71,500 square mi1es (85,180 square kilometers). Two-thirds of Syria is desert; the other third is part of the Fertile Crescent along the Mediterranean coast. About 80 percent of the population lives in that fertile region.
Since the dawn of time, the area that is Syria has been a crossroads of civilization, the bridge connecting the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and the Fertile Crescent, and the beginning of the Silk Road joining the West with the East. It was here that the cultures of Mari and Ugarit rose and fell; where the Assyrian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman empires and cultures met and influenced each other.
The total population of Syria is more than 18 million. Half the people live in cities, 4 million in Damascus alone.
|