Map of Syria
Syria is a country in Asia with its capital at Damascus, home to about 25.62 million people across 185,180 km². The interactive map below plots 21 cities and towns, 1 rivers, 1 lakes, 1 mountain summits, 1 major dams and 3 ports recorded for Syria in YearMaps.
- Population
- 25.62 million
- Area
- 185,180 km²
- Capital
- Damascus
- Continent
- Asia
Interactive Map of Syria
Centred on Damascus at 33.5020° N, 36.2981° E. Use the layer panel to switch on rivers, dams, ports, peaks and historical borders.
About Syria
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north and northwest, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a provisional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is Syria's capital and largest city. With a population of 26 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 56th-most populous and 87th-largest country.
The name "Syria" historically referred to the region of Syria, or known as Greater Syria and Syria-Palestine. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization. Damascus was the capital of the Umayyad Empire and later became an important political and administrative center, alongside Aleppo, under the Ayyubid and Mamluk Sultanates and the Ottoman Empire. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coups and coup attempts between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief pan-Arab union with Egypt, which was terminated following a 1961 coup d'état. The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a hereditary dictatorship. Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar.
During the Arab Spring in 2011, members of the Syrian opposition organized protests against the Assad regime, which became known as the Syrian Revolution. After the government responded with lethal violence, the Free Syrian Army was formed, and the revolution escalated into a multifaceted 13-year civil war, drawing in several countries and triggering a refugee crisis that displaced more than 6 million people.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Syria (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Geography and Climate of Syria
After World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French administered the area until granting it independence in 1946. The new country lacked political stability and experienced a series of military coups. Syria united with Egypt in 1958 to form the United Arab Republic. In 1961, the two entities separated, and the Syrian Arab Republic was reestablished. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Syria lost control of the Golan Heights region to Israel. During the 1990s, Syria and Israel held occasional, albeit unsuccessful, peace talks over its return. In 1970, Hafiz al-ASAD, a member of the socialist Ba'ath Party and the minority Alawi sect, seized power in a bloodless coup and brought political stability to the country. Following the death of al-ASAD, his son, Bashar al-ASAD, was approved as president by popular referendum in 2000. Syrian troops that were stationed in Lebanon since 1976 in an ostensible peacekeeping role were withdrawn in 2005. During the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hizballah, Syria placed its military forces on alert but did not intervene directly on behalf of its ally Hizballah. In 2007, Bashar al-ASAD's second term as president was again approved in a referendum. In the wake of major uprisings elsewhere in the region, antigovernment protests broke out in the southern province of Dar'a in 2011. Protesters called for the legalization of political parties, the removal of corrupt local officials, and the repeal of the restrictive Emergency Law allowing arrests without charge. Demonstrations and violent unrest spread across Syria, and the government responded with concessions, but also with military force and detentions that led to extended clashes and eventually civil war. International pressure on the Syrian Government intensified after 2011, as the Arab League, the EU, Turkey, and the US expanded economic sanctions against the ASAD regime and those entities that supported it. In 2012, more than 130 countries recognized the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people. In 2015, Russia launched a military intervention on behalf of the ASAD regime, and domestic and foreign-government-aligned forces recaptured swaths of territory from opposition forces. With foreign support, the regime continued to periodically regain opposition-held territory until 2020, when Turkish firepower halted a regime advance and forced a stalemate between regime and opposition forces. The government lacks territorial control over much of the northeastern part of the country, which the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold, and a smaller area dominated by Turkey. Since 2016, Turkey has conducted three large-scale military operations to capture territory along Syria's northern border. Some opposition forces organized under the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and Turkish forces have maintained control of northwestern Syria along the Turkish border with the Afrin area of Aleppo Province since 2018. The violent extremist organization Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly the Nusrah Front) emerged in 2017 as the predominant opposition force in Idlib Province, and still dominates an area also hosting Turkish forces. Negotiations have failed to produce a resolution to the conflict, and the UN estimated in 2022 that at least 306,000 people have died during the civil war. Approximately 6.7 million Syrians were internally displaced as of 2022, and 14.6 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance across the country. An additional 5.6 million Syrians were registered refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and North Africa. The conflict in Syria remains one of the two largest displacement crises worldwide (the other is the full-scale invasion of Ukraine). On 8 December 2024, Syrian Islamist rebels captured the capital city of Damascus and overthrew President Bashar al-ASAD. The former president and his family fled to Moscow, where they were granted political asylum. The al-ASAD regime had ruled Syria for over 50 years.
- Location
- Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and Turkey.
- Climate
- Mostly desert; hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and mild, rainy winters (December to February) along coast; cold weather with snow or sleet periodically in Damascus.
- Terrain
- Primarily semiarid and desert plateau; narrow coastal plain; mountains in west.
- Highest point
- Mount Hermon (Jabal a-Shayk) 2,814 m.
- Lowest point
- Yarmuk River -66 m.
- Coastline
- 193 km.
- Land borders
- Total: 2,363 km; border countries: Iraq 599 km; Israel 83 km; Jordan 379 km; Lebanon 403 km; Turkey 899 km.
- Major rivers
- Euphrates (shared with Turkey [s], Iran, and Iraq [m]) - 3,596 km; Tigris (shared with Turkey, Iran, and Iraq [m]) - 1,950 km note: [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth.
- Natural resources
- Petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower.
- Land use
- Agricultural land: 74.1% (2023 est.); arable land: 24% (2023 est.); permanent crops: 5.7% (2023 est.); permanent pasture: 44.5% (2023 est.); forest: 2.9% (2023 est.); other: 23% (2023 est.)
- Natural hazards
- Dust storms, sandstorms volcanism: Syria's two historically active volcanoes, Es Safa and an unnamed volcano near the Turkish border, have not erupted in centuries.
- Geographic note
- The capital of Damascus is located at an oasis fed by the Barada River and is thought to be one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities; there are Israeli settlements and civilian land-use sites in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights (2017)
- Languages
- Arabic (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian, French, English.
- Religions
- Muslim 87% (official; includes Sunni 74% and Alawi, Ismaili, and Shia 13%), Christian 10% (includes Orthodox, Uniate, and Nestorian), Druze 3%.
- Ethnic groups
- Arab ~50%, Alawite ~15%, Kurd ~10%, Levantine ~10%, other ~15% (includes Druze, Ismaili, Imami, Nusairi, Assyrian, Turkoman, Armenian)
- Economy
- Low-income Middle Eastern economy; prior infrastructure and economy devastated by 11-year civil war; ongoing US sanctions; sporadic trans-migration during conflict; currently being supported by World Bank trust fund; ongoing hyperinflation.
From the CIA World Factbook (public domain), archived edition of 2026-01-22. The Factbook is no longer updated, so figures reflect that edition.
Syria in Numbers
- Population
- 25.62 million
- GDP
- US$23.7 billion
- GDP per person
- US$1,057
- Life expectancy
- 72.6 years
- Population growth
- 3.77% a year
- Population density
- 134 per km²
- Urban population
- 72.1%
- Surface area
- 185,180 km²
- Forest cover
- 2.9%
- Arable land
- 24.0%
- Access to electricity
- 89.3%
- Internet users
- 33.8%
Indicators from World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0). The year under each figure is its reference year.
Syria in Depth
History
The Natufian culture was the first to become sedentary around the 11th millennium BC and became one of the centers of Neolithic culture (known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A), where agriculture and cattle breeding first began to appear. The site of Tell Qaramel has several round stone towers dated to 10650 BC, making them the oldest structures of this kind in the world. The Neolithic period (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) is represented by rectangular houses of Mureybet culture. At the time, people used containers made of stone, gyps, and burnt lime (Vaisselle blanche). The discovery of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidence of early trade. The ancient cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Geography
Syria is the twenty-fifth-largest country in Asia. It borders Turkey to the north; Iraq to the east and southeast; Jordan to the south; Israel and Lebanon to the southwest; and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Syrian territory covers 185,180 km2 (71,500 sq mi). Elevation ranges from the coastal plains of the Mediterranean to the mountains of western Syria, with Mount Hermon being the country's highest point at 2,814 metres (9,232 feet). Much of central and eastern Syria consists of arid plateaus and desert regions, including parts of the Syrian desert, while the fertile valleys of the Euphrates, Orontes, and Khabur rivers support agriculture and settlement. Significant natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, phosphate rock, asphalt, marble, gypsum, and arable land.
Economy
After the fall of the Assad regime, the subsequent formation of the Syrian transitional government and the lifting of sanctions placed onto the Ba'athist-led government, Syria's economy has begun to see significant growth, with Syrian news agency Levant24 claiming that the country's GDP had risen to $32 billion, experiencing a 30% to 35% growth in the GDP, alongside recording a budget surplus for the first time since the end of the Syrian civil war and expecting GDP to rise to $60 or $65 billion, around the same amount prior to the beginning of the civil war.
Demographics
Most people live in the Euphrates River valley and along the coastal plain, a fertile strip between the coastal mountains and the desert. Overall population density before the civil war was about 99 per square kilometre (258 per square mile). According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Syria hosted a population of refugees and asylum seekers numbering approximately 1,852,300. The vast majority of this population was from Iraq (1,300,000), but sizeable populations from Palestine (543,400) and Somalia (5,200) also lived in the country.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Syria (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Syria: Key Facts
| Currency | Syrian pound |
|---|---|
| Official language | Arabic |
| Head of state | Ahmed al-Sharaa |
| Form of government | provisional government |
| Calling code | +963 |
| Internet domain | .sy |
| Highest point | Mount Hermon |
| Lowest point | Sea of Galilee |
| Established | 8 March 1920 |
Facts from Wikidata Q858 (CC0).
History of Syria: Empires and States
The atlas records 55 polities whose mapped territory included part of Syria, from Akkadian Empire in 2300 BCE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here | Extent |
|---|---|---|
| Akkadian Empire | 2300–2101 BCE | A large part |
| Hyksos | 1800–1401 BCE | A large part |
| Mitanni | 1500–1241 BCE | A large part |
| Ancient Egyptian Kingdoms | 1400–1151 BCE | A large part |
| New Kingdom of Egypt | 1400–1151 BCE | A large part |
| Hittites | 1300–1151 BCE | A small part |
| Assyria | 1300–1001 BCE | A large part |
| Kingdom of Israel | 1000–701 BCE | A small part |
| Neo-Assyrian Empire | 900–601 BCE | Most |
| Assyrian Egypt | 650–616 BCE | Most |
| Neo-Babylonian Empire | 600–531 BCE | Most |
| Achaemenid Persian Empire | 530–330 BCE | Most |
| Achaemenid Empire | 530–327 BCE | Most |
| Ptolemaic Kingdom | 331–31 BCE | Most |
| The Macedonian Empire of Alexander | 323–302 BCE | Most |
| Seleucid Empire | 301–64 BCE | Most |
| Parthian Empire | 110 BCE – 164 CE | Most |
| Kingdom of Armenia | 77–67 BCE | Most |
| Nabataeans | 77–64 BCE | A small part |
| Roman Republic | 63–32 BCE | A large part |
| Kingdom of Osroene | 63 BCE – 214 CE | A small part |
| The Roman Empire | 30 BCE – 476 CE | Most |
| The Sasanian Empire | 260–633 CE | Most |
| Palmyrene Empire | 261–269 CE | Most |
| Eastern Roman Empire | 395–632 CE | Most |
| The Byzantine Empire | 395–637 CE | Most |
| Rashidun Caliphate | 634–665 CE | Most |
| The Umayyad Caliphate | 656–750 CE | Most |
| The Abbasid Caliphate | 751–969 CE | Most |
| Tulunids | 878–910 CE | Most |
| Hamdanid Emirates | 936–1125 CE | Most |
| Fatimid Caliphate | 970–1027 CE | A small part |
| Buyid Dynasty | 980–989 CE | A small part |
| Great Seljuk Empire | 1072–1138 CE | Most |
| Principality of Antioch | 1111–1168 CE | A small part |
| Zengid dynasty | 1139–1191 CE | Most |
| Ayyubid Sultanate | 1177–1240 CE | Most |
| Mamluk Sultanate | 1241–1518 CE | Most |
| The Mongol Empire | 1260–1343 CE | Most |
| Ilkhanate | 1294–1343 CE | A small part |
| Germiyanids | 1344–1414 CE | A small part |
| Aq Qoyunlu | 1415–1511 CE | A small part |
| Safavid Dynasty | 1512–1533 CE | A small part |
| The Ottoman Empire | 1519–1918 CE | Most |
| Muhammad Ali dynasty | 1834–1841 CE | Most |
Also recorded: British Africa, The British Empire, The French Colonial Empire, French Third Republic, French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, Second Syrian Republic, United Arab Republic, Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, Syria, Mujahideen.
Historical Maps of Syria
Syria on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Visiting Syria
Syria (Arabic: الجمهوريّة العربيّة السّوريّة al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah, the Syrian Arab Republic) is a country in the Middle East. Rich in history, the capital, Damascus, is the world's oldest continuously inhabited city, and the country has been the site of numerous empires.
From 2011 to 2024, the country was torn apart by a brutal civil war. This aside, the country offers numerous attractions and some daring travelers have been able to visit Syria without hesitation.
Information presented in this page and related pages is updated when possible. However, due to security concerns, the civil war, and the regime change in 2024, not all information may be current.
Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Syria (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Largest Cities in Syria
21 cities recorded. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleppo | 2.74 million | Aleppo (Halab) | Populated place |
| 2 | Damascus | 2.47 million | Damascus | National capital |
| 3 | Hims | 1.00 million | Homs (Hims) | Populated place |
| 4 | Al Ladhiqiyah | 539,147 | Lattakia (Al Ladhiqiyah) | Admin-1 capital |
| 5 | Douma | 496,145 | Damascus | Populated place |
| 6 | Hamah | 460,602 | Hamah | Admin-1 capital |
| 7 | Dayr az Zawr | 309,141 | Dayr Az Zawr | Admin-1 capital |
| 8 | Ar Raqqah | 177,636 | Ar Raqqah | Admin-1 capital |
| 9 | Tartus | 162,980 | Tartus | Admin-1 capital |
| 10 | Dar'a | 146,481 | Dar`a | Admin-1 capital |
| 11 | Idlib | 128,840 | Idlib | Admin-1 capital |
| 12 | Al Hasakah | 128,100 | Hasaka (Al Haksa) | Admin-1 capital |
| 13 | Manbij | 120,169 | Aleppo (Halab) | Populated place |
| 14 | Al Qamishli | 104,107 | Hasaka (Al Haksa) | Populated place |
| 15 | Madinat ath Thawrah | 87,880 | Ar Raqqah | Populated place |
| 16 | Abu Kamal | 80,808 | Dayr Az Zawr | Populated place |
| 17 | As Suwayda | 72,248 | As Suwayda' | Admin-1 capital |
| 18 | Tadmur | 55,111 | Homs (Hims) | Populated place |
| 19 | Ad Nabk | 50,178 | Damascus | Populated place |
| 20 | Izaz | 31,534 | Aleppo (Halab) | Populated place |
| 21 | Al Qunaytirah | 4,318 | Golan | Admin-1 capital |
Highest Mountains in Syria
1 mountain recorded. Ranked by summit elevation above sea level. A summit on a border is listed under both countries.
| # | Name | Elevation | Feet | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jabal ash Shaykh | 2,814 m | 9,232 ft | Asia |
Major Dams in Syria
1 dam recorded. Ranked by structural height.
| # | Name | Height | River | Capacity | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tabqa Dam (al-Thawra) | 60 m | Euphrates | 824 MW | 1973 |
Largest Lakes in Syria
1 lake recorded. Ranked by mapped surface area. A lake on a border is listed under each country it lies in, with the area of the whole lake.
| # | Name | Surface Area | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buhayrat al-Assad | 675 km² | Reservoir |
Rivers in Syria
1 river recorded. Listed alphabetically. A river is listed where its mapped reach lies, so long rivers appear under more than one country.
| Name | Type | Also Flows Through |
|---|---|---|
| Euphrates | River | Iraq |
Ports in Syria
3 ports recorded. Ranked by approach channel depth, the figure that limits which ships can call. Harbours link to their write-up on the page of the sea or coast they lie on.
| # | Name | Channel Depth | Class | Sea | Max Vessel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | al Ladhiqiyah | 27.4 m | Minor | Eastern Mediterranean | medium vessels |
| 2 | Tartus | 27.4 m | Small | Eastern Mediterranean | medium vessels |
| 3 | Baniyas | — | Major | Eastern Mediterranean | medium vessels |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Syria
6 World Heritage Sites recorded. Listed by year of inscription, earliest first. Sites shared with another country appear under each.
| # | Name | Inscribed | Type | Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ancient City of Damascus | 1979 | Cultural | (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (vi) |
| 2 | Ancient City of Bosra | 1980 | Cultural | (i) (iii) (vi) |
| 3 | Palmyra | 1980 | Cultural | (i) (ii) (iv) |
| 4 | Ancient City of Aleppo | 1986 | Cultural | (iii) (iv) |
| 5 | Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din | 2006 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
| 6 | Dead Cities | 2011 | Cultural | (iii) (iv) (v) |
Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Syria
3 mountain ranges, deserts and other landforms recorded. Ranked by mapped area. Covers mountain ranges, deserts, plateaus, named glaciers, plains, basins, peninsulas and capes. One that crosses a border is listed under every country it lies in, with the area of the whole feature.
| # | Name | Area | Type | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Asia | 46.28M km² | Continent | Asia |
| 2 | Syrian Desert | 181,173 km² | Desert | Asia |
| 3 | Mesopotamia | 154,288 km² | Geoarea | Asia |
Syrian Desert
Desert · 181,173 km²
Syrian Desert is a desert in Asia, covering an estimated 181,173 km². It extends across Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. It is the 11th-largest of the 58 deserts with a mapped extent in YearMaps.
The Syrian desert (Arabic: بادية الشام Bādiyat Ash-Shām), also known as the North Arabian desert, the Jordanian steppe, the Syrian steppe, or the Badiya, or Badiyat al-Sham, is a region of desert, semi-desert, and steppe, covering about 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) of West Asia, including parts of northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, southern Syria, and western Iraq. It accounts for about 85% of the land area of Jordan and 55% of Syria. To the south, it borders and merges into the Arabian Desert. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis, or river valleys, generally dry riverbeds.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Syrian desert (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Feature class
- Desert
- Mapped extent
- 181,173 km²
- Size rank
- #11 of 58 deserts
- Region
- Asia
- Countries
- Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria
- Coordinates
- 32.5773°, 40.3640°
- Ranges:
- Lebanon Mountains (Asia), Taurus Mountains (Asia)
More about Syrian Desert
Geography
The 700–900-metre high (2,300–3,000 ft) region in the middle of the desert is the Hamad Plateau, a rather flat, stony semi-desert consisting of limestone bedrock covered with chert gravel. What little rain arrives on the plateau flows into local salt flats. The highest peaks of the plateau are those of the 1,000 m (3,300 ft)+ Khawr um Wual in Saudi Arabia, and the 960-metre high (3,150 ft) Jebel Aneiza, at the border tripoint of Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Together with the other deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, the Hamad Desert has been described as one of the most arid deserts of the world.
History
The desert was historically inhabited by nomadic Arabs (Bedouins) and nomadic Aramean tribes, and many tribes still remain in the region, their members living mainly in towns and settlements built near oases. Some Bedouin still maintain their traditional way of life in the desert. Safaitic inscriptions, proto-Arabic texts written by literate Bedouin, are found throughout the Syrian Desert. These date roughly from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Location and name
The desert is bounded by the Orontes Valley and the volcanic field of Harrat al-Shamah to the west, and by the Euphrates to the east. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas and to the south it runs into the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula.
Parts of the Syrian Desert have been referred to otherwise, such as Homs Desert, Palmyrene Desert for the part around Palmyra, and, from an Iraqi point of view, Western Desert for the part of the eastern section of the Syrian Desert that lies entirely within the borders of Iraq. The name Shamiyah has also been used for the Syrian Desert, the name having been translated in the past as Badiyat al-Sham or Badiyat ash-Sham.
Economy and agriculture
With low rainfall and poor-quality soils, today the region is principally used as rangeland for livestock. Bedouin herdsmen, many of whom are still nomadic, graze about twelve million sheep and goats here, as well as a smaller number of camels.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development aims to alleviate rural poverty, and in 1995, in cooperation with the Syrian government, it started a project to rehabilitate over a million hectares of degraded land in the Syrian Badia. In some areas, when grazing was restricted, there was a spontaneous return of many of the native plants. In other areas which were more heavily degraded, grazing restrictions were supplemented by reseeding and the planting of fodder species.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Syrian desert (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Syrian Desert: Key Facts
| Area | 518,000 km² |
|---|
Facts from Wikidata Q339162 (CC0).
Mesopotamia
Geoarea · 154,288 km²
Mesopotamia is a geoarea in Asia, covering an estimated 154,288 km². It extends across Iraq and Syria.
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. It corresponds roughly to the territory of modern Iraq. Just beyond it lies southwestern Iran, where the region transitions into the Iranian plateau, marking the shift from the Arab world to Iran.
Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops, the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy, and agriculture." It is recognised as the cradle of some of the world's earliest civilizations.
The Sumerians and Akkadians, each originating from different areas, dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of recorded history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. The rise of empires, beginning with Sargon of Akkad around 2350 BC, characterized the subsequent 2,000 years of Mesopotamian history, marked by the succession of kingdoms and empires such as the Akkadian Empire.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Mesopotamia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Feature class
- Geoarea
- Mapped extent
- 154,288 km²
- Size rank
- #52 of 231 landforms
- Region
- Asia
- Countries
- Iraq, Syria
- Coordinates
- 35.7046°, 41.7094°
- Ranges:
- Lebanon Mountains (Asia), Taurus Mountains (Asia)
- Settlements:
- Al Hasakah (62 km), Dayr az Zawr (87 km), Ar Raqqah (111 km)
More about Mesopotamia
Geography
Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the neighboring Armenian highlands. Both rivers are fed by numerous tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000-square-kilometre (5,800 sq mi) region of marshes, lagoons, mudflats, and reed banks in the south. In the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf.
History
The prehistory of the Ancient Near East begins in the Lower Paleolithic period. Therein, writing emerged with a pictographic script, Proto-cuneiform, in the Uruk IV period (c. late 4th millennium BC). The documented record of actual historical events—and the ancient history of lower Mesopotamia—commenced in the early-third millennium BC with cuneiform records of early dynastic kings. This entire history ends with either the arrival of the Achaemenid Empire in the late 6th century BC or with the Muslim conquest and the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, from which point the region came to be known as Iraq. In the long span of this period, Mesopotamia housed some of the world's most ancient highly developed, and socially complex states.
Economy
Sumerian temples functioned as banks and developed the first large-scale system of loans and credit. The Babylonians developed the earliest system of commercial banking. It was comparable in some ways to modern post-Keynesian economics, but with a more "anything goes" approach.
Irrigated agriculture spread southwards from the Zagros foothills with the Samara and Hadji Muhammed culture, from about 5,000 BC.
In the early period down to Ur III temples owned up to one third of the available land, declining over time as royal and other private holdings increased in frequency. The word Ensi was used to describe the official who organized the work of all facets of temple agriculture.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Mesopotamia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Countries Bordering Syria
Land and maritime neighbours.
More Maps in Asia
Syria: Quick Answers
- What is the capital of Syria?
- The capital of Syria is Damascus.
- What is the population of Syria?
- Syria has a population of about 25.62 million, the #57 largest of 225 countries in YearMaps. Source: World Bank, 2025.
- How big is Syria?
- Syria covers 185,180 km², ranking #90 by area, with about 138 people per square kilometre.
- Which continent is Syria in?
- Syria is in Asia.
- Which countries border Syria?
- Syria shares a land or maritime border with Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon.
- What is the largest city in Syria?
- Aleppo is the largest city in Syria, with a metropolitan population of about 2.74 million.
- What is the highest mountain in Syria?
- The highest summit recorded for Syria in YearMaps is Jabal ash Shaykh at 2,814 m (9,232 ft). Summits on a border are counted for both countries.
- What is the largest lake in Syria?
- The largest lake recorded in or bordering Syria is Buhayrat al-Assad, at roughly 675 km².
- What is the tallest dam in Syria?
- The tallest dam recorded for Syria is Tabqa Dam (al-Thawra) at 60 m, on the Euphrates.