Syrian Arab Republic was born in 1946 in an ancient land swept for more than four thousand years by waves of conquerors. Syria is located in southwestern Asia, bounded on the north by Turkey, on the east by Iraq, on the south by Jordan , and on the west by Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea. Syria has an area of about 185,050 sq km (about 71,498 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Damascus.

Geography

Land and Resources
Syria has an extreme east-to-west distance of about 830 km (about 515 mi.) and an extreme north-to-south distance of about 740 km (about 460 mi.). Along the Mediterranean coast, which is about 160 km (about 100 mi.) long, lies a narrow plain extending inland as far as 32 km (20 mi.). Parallel to this plain is the Jabal an Nusayriyah, 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 2814 m (9232 ft).

The Anti-Lebanon range tapers off into a hilly region called the Golan Heights in the southwestern corner of Syria. Much of the rest of the country consists of a plateau, which is bisected in the northeast by the valley of the Euphrates (known in Syria as Al Furat) River. The plateau area north of the Euphrates is called the plain of Al Jazìrah.

The semicircular plateau area in the southeastern is in the Syrian Desert. The Euphrates, the longest river in Syria, flows diagonally across the country from Turkey in the north to Iraq on 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.

Climate
West of the Jabal an Nusayriyah, Syria has a Mediterranean climate, characterized by hot, dry summers and wet winters with occasional snow.

Natural Resources
Petroleum, natural gas, phosphate rock, asphalt, and salt are the main Syrian minerals found in sufficiently large quantities for commercial exploitation. Small deposits of coal, iron ore, copper, lead, and gold exist, primarily in mountainous regions. Good farmland is located in the coastal region and in parts of the valleys of the Orontes and Euphrates rivers.

Population
Syria is populated chiefly by Arabs, who constitute about 90 percent of the population. The largest non-Arab minorities are Kurds, most of whom are pastoral people concentrated along the Turkish border, and Armenians, who dwell chiefly in the larger cities. The Syrian Desert is the most sparsely populated part of Syria. The most densely settled area of the country is in the west.

Population Characteristics
The population of Syria (1995 estimate) is about 14,775,000, giving the country an overall population density of about 80 persons per sq. km. Population growth during the early 1990s was estimated at 3.6 percent a year.

Political Divisions and Principal Cities
Syria is divided into 13 governorates and the municipality of Damascus. The capital and largest city of the country is Damascus, with a population (1992 estimate) of 1,451,000. Major cities include Halab (1992 estimate, 1,445,000), Homs (518,000), Al Ladhiqìyah (284,000), and Hamah (254,000).

Religion
The overwhelming majority of the Syrian population is Sunni Muslim. Other Muslims include Ismailis, Shiites, and Alawites. Of the non-Muslims in Syria, most are Christians, primarily Greek and Armenian Orthodox. Religious minorities include Druze, who follow a religion related to Islam, and a community of approximately 1000 Jews.

Education
Primary education is free and compulsory for all children. In the early 90's about 2.5 million pupils were enrolled annually in primary schools, about 850,000 students attended secondary schools, and about 53,300 students were enrolled in vocational institutes.

Syria has universities in Damascus, Halab, Homs, and Al Ladhiqìyah, with a total annual enrollment in the mid-1990s of about 170,000 students.

Also in Damascus is the Arab Academy (1919), which is devoted to the study of Arabic language, literature, history, and culture. Other institutes and colleges specialize in social work, agriculture, industry, technology, and music.

Libraries and Museums
The public libraries in Halab, Damascus, Homs, and Al Ladhiqìyah house the principal collections of the country. Other major repositories include the Damascus University Library, with more than 150,000 volumes, and the Assad National Library, also in Damascus. The most notable museum is the National Museum, in Damascus, which has collections that include Asian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic art. The museums at the site of the ancient city of Palmyra and in Halab are noted for their archaeological holdings.

Economy
Syria is primarily an agricultural country, and most workers engage in crop farming or herding for a livelihood. The country has about 5 million hectares of arable land and about 8.3 million hectares of permanent meadows and pastureland. Much of the tilled acreage is irrigated.

Irrigation is necessary even in many regions that receive substantial annual rainfall, because most of the rainfall occurs during the winter rather than during the growing season. A major irrigation project in the Euphrates River valley is designed to bring an additional 640,000 hectares under cultivation. The estimated annual national budget in the early 1990s included about $5.4 billion in domestic revenue and $7.5 billion in expenditure, including capital expenditures of $2.9 billion.

Agriculture
Despite climatic handicaps, Syria produces a wide variety of crops, some in sufficient quantity for export. The major crops are cereals, primarily wheat and barley; cotton, which was raised in increasingly large quantities beginning in the late 1950s and accounted for more than half the national export revenues before the ascendancy of oil in the mid-1970s; and tobacco, grapes, olives, citrus fruits, and vegetables. In the early 1990s Syrian wheat production totaled about 3 million metric tons per year; barley, 1.1 million tons; seed cotton, 689,000 tons; grapes, 533,000 tons; olives, 491,000 tons; tomatoes, 448,000 tons; and watermelons, 347,000 tons. Syrian livestock in the same period included approximately 762,000 cattle, 42,000 horses, 165,000 asses, 15.8 million sheep, 986,000 goats, and 16 million chickens.

Manufacturing
Syrian manufacturing industries began to grow substantially in the 1960s. The government encouraged industrialization by raising tariffs on imported consumer goods and providing tax exemptions and credit for domestic industries. During the period when Syria was federated with Egypt in the United Arab Republic (February 1958 through September 1961), governmental involvement in the economic sector was greatly expanded, and in July 1961, shortly before Syria seceded from the union, most industrial concerns were nationalized. After the secession, except for a large textile concern and several flour mills, Syrian industry was denationalized. The requirement that companies distribute 25 percent of their profits to their employees was retained, however. Many of the industries that were returned to private management after the break with Egypt were renationalize in 1965.

Textiles constitute the largest single manufacturing industry in Syria. Cotton and silk textile production was about 26,000 metric tons per year in the early 1990s. Syrian artisans continue to be noted, as in centuries past, for the fine quality of their silk brocades and rugs and for their artistic metalwork in brass, copper, silver, iron, and steel. Annual cement production was about 3.2 million tons. The soap, glass, flour, tobacco, tanning, vegetable oil, and food-processing industries are growing, and about 27 million metric tons of crude petroleum were produced annually in the early 1990s.

Energy About 20 percent of Syria's electricity is generated in hydroelectric facilities, and the remainder is produced in conventional thermal installations. The annual output in the early 1990s was 11.9 billion kilowatt-hours.

Currency and Banking
The basic unit of currency is the Syrian pound, divided into 100 piasters (22 pounds equal U.S.$1; official rate since 1991). Syrian banking was formerly controlled by foreign companies. After the achievement of full independence in 1946, banking operations were conducted to an increasing extent by Syrian-owned banks. Until 1956 currency was issued by the largest commercial bank in Syria, the French-owned Banque de Syrie et du Liban. In that year the Syrian government established a new, state-owned bank, the Central Bank of Syria, and authorized it to issue the national currency.

Foreign Trade
In the past, Syria imported considerably more than it exported each year. However, Syria's closer alliance with Western nations and the Gulf States in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War (1991) stimulated high economic growth in the private sector and increased export earnings. In the early 1990s Syrian imports had an estimated annual value of about $2.7 billion, and exports had a yearly value of about $3.5 billion. The principal imports were manufactures of many types, including machinery, transportation equipment, iron and steel, refined petroleum, textiles, and chemical products. Syria also imported grain, livestock products, and other agricultural goods. The principal exports were petroleum, which in 1974 supplanted raw cotton as the leading export; cotton and other textile items; preserved foods, beverages, tobacco, phosphates, fruits and vegetables. The chief buyers of Syrian exports were Romania, Italy, France, and Russia and the other successors of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Imports were supplied chiefly by Iran, Libya, Germany, France, Italy, and Russia and the other successors of the USSR. Much revenue was derived from fees charged to foreign countries for piping oil through Syria. Considerable foreign currency also came from the expenditures of the many tourists who visit the country each year.

Transportation and Communications
Transportation and communications facilities in Syria are owned and operated by the state. Some 2050 km of railroads connect the major cities of Syria and extend to the national frontiers of all neighboring countries except Israel. These include three relatively new lines connecting Homs to Damascus, Damascus to Halab, and Tartus to Al Ladhiqìyah. Syria has about 30,210 km of roads, of which 94 percent are paved. Approximately 112,900 passenger cars and 131,600 buses, trucks, and other commercial vehicles were in use in Syria in the early 1990s. Al Ladhiqìyah is the main seaport; port facilities at Tartus were developed in the 1980s. The national air carrier is Syrian Arab Airlines; the main international airport serves Damascus.

Telephones in Syria numbered about 512,600 and radios about 3.3 million in the early 1990s. Television service began in 1960, and more than 770,000 sets were in use by 1991. The country's leading daily newspapers are al-Baath and al-Thawrah, published in Damascus; al-Jamahir al-Arabia, published in Halab; and al-Fida, published in Hamah.

Government
An interim constitution issued in 1964 (suspended in 1966) declared Syria to be a democratic socialist republic. In 1971 a provisional constitution was decreed by the head of state, General Hafez al-Assad. In 1973 a permanent constitution creating a People's Council as the national legislature was approved by referendum.

Executive
The chief executive and head of state of Syria is a president, who is popularly elected to a seven-year term. The president appoints a council of ministers, which is headed by a prime minister. Three vice presidents were appointed in March 1984.

Legislature
The legislature of Syria is the People's Council. It is made up of 195 members, popularly elected to terms of about four years.

Political Parties
The leading political grouping in Syria is the National Progressive Front, formed in 1972. Its main component is the Baath Arab Socialist party, founded in 1947.

Judiciary
The highest tribunal in Syria is the High Constitutional Court, which sits in Damascus. Other judicial bodies include the Court of Cassation and lesser courts of appeal in each of the country's 13 governorates, summary courts, and courts of first instance.

Defense
Military service is compulsory for men in Syria, and normally lasts for a period of 30 months. The country's armed forces in the early 1990s included an army of about 300,000 members, an air force of about 40,000, and a navy of about 8000.