About Syria
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Syrian Tales
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 The Syrian Arab Republic or Syria is a country in the Levant region of the Middle East. It borders Lebanon to the west, Palestine/Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north. Israel occupies the Golan Heights in the southwest of the country, and the dispute with Turkey over the Hatay Province now seems to have subsided. The ancient region of Syria, also known as Greater Syria, has often been taken to include the territories of Lebanon, Palestine, and parts of Jordan, but excluding the Jazira region in the north-east of modern. 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, Syria was occupied successively by Canaanites, Hebrews, Arameans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans, Byzantines, Arabs, and, in part, Crusaders before finally coming under the control of the Ottoman Turks, and that’s why Archaeologists have demonstrated that Syria was the center of one of the most ancient civilizations on earth, Syria is significant in the history of Christianity; Paul was converted on the road to Damascus and established the first organized Christian Church at Antioch in ancient Syria, from which he left on many of his missionary journeys. Damascus, the city that has been inhabited as early as 8,000 to 10,000 BC is known to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It came under Muslim rule in A.D. 636. Immediately thereafter, the city's power and prestige reached its peak, and it became the capital of the Omayyad Empire. Ethnic Syrians are a mix of Semetic and Indo-European peoples that have occupied the region over time. Syria's population is 90% Muslim and 10% Christian. There also is a tiny Syrian Jewish community that is mainly in Damascus, Aleppo and al-Kamishli. Syrians have contributed to Arabic literature and music and have a proud tradition of oral and written poetry. Syrian writers, many of whom emigrated to Egypt, played a crucial role in the nahda or Arab literary and cultural revival of the nineteenth century. Prominent contemporary Syrian writers include, among others, Adonis (lately was nominated for Noble's prize for literature) ,Ghada al-Samman, Nizar Qabbani and Zakariyya Tamer, and in the midia section the world-wide famous director Mustafa Al-akkad (the director of Hallowien sires,"the message" and "the lion of desert") who lately died in a terrorist attaks in amman. |
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