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| Anthem | "Guardians of the Land" | ||||
| Capital | Damascus | ||||
| Largest city | Aleppo | ||||
| Language official |
Arabic • French • Syriac • Aramaic | ||||
| others | English • Hebrew • Greek | ||||
| Religion main |
Sunni Islam | ||||
| others | Judaism • Christianity • Eastern Orthodoxy • State Atheism • Shi'ite Islam | ||||
| Demonym | Syrian • Syriac | ||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | ||||
| Legislature | People's Council | ||||
| Independence | from France | ||||
| declared | 17 April 1946 | ||||
| Calling Code | +963 | ||||
| Internet TLD | .sy, سوريا. | ||||
| Organizations | UN, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation | ||||
Syria (Arabic: الجمهورية السورية, Aljmhwryh Alswryh; (French: République Syrienne; Syriac and Aramaic: ܦܽܘܠܺܝܛܺܝܰܐ ܐܳܪܳܡܳܝܳܐ, Puwliyṭiyaʾ ʾOromoyoʾ), officially known as the Syrian Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Byzantium to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Palestine to the southwest. Its capital Damascus is among the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, it is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Alawite, Sunni and Christian Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Druze, Kurds, and Turks. Sunni Arabs make up the largest population group in Syria.
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham) while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt.
The modern Syrian state was established after the first World War as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by a military coup. Syria is under Emergency Law, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens. Syria is a member of four international organizations other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, and the Union for the Mediterranean.