Nomadic Thoughts - The Personalised Travel Service

This country has a magnificent array of ancient sites and cities to visit ranging from the Mediterranean coastal regions to the desert areas in the East. Damascus, Syria's capital is the world's oldest inhabited city. A central feature of the city is the Ummayyad Mosque, which was built on the site of a temple to the ancient Aramean god Haddad. Aleppo is possibly even older than Damascus. Its massive Citadel standing on the site of a Hittite acropolis is one of the most magnificent examples of Islamic Arab military architecture in Syria. There are an impressive number of mosques in the city. One can't go to Syria without visiting the Crac des Chevaliers (Castle of the Knights), situated in the only significant break in the mountain range between Turkey and Lebanon, and is the most famous crusader castle in the world. Palmyra in the Central Region of Syria is set in a desert oasis. The ruins of the Valley of Tombs, the Hypogeum of the Three Brothers, the Temple of Baal and the Monumental Arch are considered as some of the most famous monuments to the Classical period in the Middle East. Bosra has probably the best-preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world as well as some of the oldest minarets in the whole of Islam

The fruit orchards around Damascus in early spring, when apricots, plums and cherries are in bloom, are just one of the breathtaking sights of Syria. This country, riddled with strife in recent years, remains one of the most fascinating travel destinations in the Middle East, with its rich historical and cultural heritage reaching back thousands of years and still visible today. The country boasts sensationally beautiful ruined cities, labyrinthine medieval souks, and countless hidden mosques, as well as a cuisine you won't be able to get enough of - stuffed vine leaves, honeyed pastries and mouth-watering lamb are delicacies that are alone worth visiting for.

Syria is bordered by Turkey in the north, Iraq in the east, Jordan in the south and Israel and Lebanon in the southwest. North of Lebanon, Syria has a stretch of coastline on the Mediterranean. The country can be divided into four main geographical areas: the fertile plain in the northeast, the plateau, coastal and mountain areas in the west, the central plains, and the desert and steppe region in the central and south-eastern areas. The Euphrates flows from Turkey in the north, through Syria down to Iraq in the southeast. It is the longest river in the region at 2330km (1450 miles), of which 600km flow through Syria.

The climate in Syria is dry and hot, and winters are mild. Because of the country's elevation, snowfall does occasionally occur during winter in the mountains. Spring is the best time to visit as temperatures are mild and the winter rains have cleared the haze that obscures views for much of the year.

The Syrian Arab Republic has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years and, as a result, has a rich cultural history. The area that is now the Syrian Arab Republic was part of the Empire of Mesopotamia around 2300 BC, during which time the cities of Ugarit (where the oldest written alphabet in the world is believed to have been developed) and Byblos grew to become powerful commercial centres. By about 500 BC, southern Syria had fallen under the control of Egypt, while the northern principalities had been welded into the Mitanni Empire. Within a few centuries, however, the Hittites from the north had overrun all of Syria, an empire that in turn collapsed in the face of invasions by the Mediterranean Sea peoples. The history of the following centuries, until the eventual destruction of the Kingdom of Judah in 539 BC, is one of a struggle by Babylonians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Phoenicians and many other tribes and empires for control of Syrian trade. Alexander the Great absorbed Syria into his empire in 333 BC; however, control of the region was disputed for the following two centuries, on this occasion, between the various people trying to gain control of his inheritance.

For several centuries, the Province of Syria enjoyed the mixed blessings of the Pax Romana and was a province of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire after the division of the Roman Empire. But even then, Syria was regarded as a frontier region, bordered to the east by the Arabs and Persians. The Persian invasions were repulsed but Syria eventually fell to the Muslims in the mid-seventh century. From then on, Syria was to be firmly part of the Muslim world, although retaining Christian and Jewish populations. Muslim control of Syria was vital to the defeat of the Christians and their expulsion from Jerusalem. However, during the 13th century, a far greater threat was the terrifying force of the Mongols. In the space of 50 years, they swept through Asia, creating an empire that stretched from Korea to Moscow. By 1260, they had overrun Syria and deposed the Abbasid Khalif. The Muslim world and, indeed, the Christian one seemed doomed. But in that year, the Mamluk General Baybars defeated the massive army of Hulagu at the Battle of Goliath's Well, a victory that, in retrospect, must be seen as one of the world's most decisive military engagements. By 1520, the region had fallen under the sway of the Ottoman Turks and, as a result, Syria prospered once again.

The 19th century was a period of increasing restlessness in the area. Napoleon's campaign in 1799/1800, the Egyptian invasion in the 1830s and the insurrection in 1860-61 are three instances of this. The Turks were defeated in World War I and Syria was occupied by the French for a short time, before Syria was granted full independence in 1946. Three years later, the country came under the first of a series of military dictatorships that governed the country for most of the subsequent period. As in the rest of the Middle East, Arab nationalism became a major political force during the 1950s indeed, the influence of Nasser's revolution in Egypt on the Syrians was so strong that Syria joined Egypt in forming the United Arab Republic in 1958. The alliance was short-lived, Syria seceding in 1961, to form the Syrian Arab Republic. The most powerful political force in Syria since then has been the Ba'ath Party or Arab Socialist Renaissance, which seized power in 1971, under the leadership of General Hafez al-Assad, who ruled at the head of a tightly controlled dictatorship, until his death in June 2000. Assad's main power base was the Alawite group, a Muslim sect to which 10 per cent of the Syrian population is affiliated. With the tactical and strategic skill that was his trademark, Assad comfortably dealt with the challenges to his supremacy, largely through his control of the army and the country's myriad intelligence organisations.

The major exception occurred in February 1982, when the Muslim Brotherhood, the principal opposition group confronting the Assad regime, launched a rebellion from the town of Hama. The rebellion was crushed, with several thousand deaths, by military forces led by Assad's brother Rifaat who then controlled the country's security forces. A few months afterwards, Assad then faced his most serious foreign policy challenge since the loss of the Golan Heights (an area bordering the Syrian Arab Republic and Israel) in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The Syrian Arab Republic perceived Israel's strategy as establishing a Christian-dominated client state, underpinned by Israeli military power. The Syrian Arab Republic could not hope to match the Israelis militarily but Assad nonetheless managed to manoeuvre the Syrian Arab Republic into a dominant position in Lebanon. This he achieved by supporting the main Lebanese Muslim militias, Amal and Hezbollah, and then introducing a substantial military presence of its own, remaining careful to avoid direct confrontation with the Israelis (see Israel and Lebanon). In 1984, the Israelis moved into a self-styled 'security zone' south of the Litani River and in 1999, after a decade and a half of attritional guerrilla warfare with the Syrian-backed Hezbollah, the Israelis pulled out altogether.

The Syrian Arab Republic's relations with the West reached a nadir during the late-1980s, but the 1991 Gulf War came as an unexpected blessing, with the USA eager to attract Arab states into the anti-Iraqi coalition. Assad had been an implacable opponent of Saddam Hussein's Iraq from the beginning: the pan-Arab Ba'athist movement had suffered a fatal ideological split in the 1960s which has never been healed. The Syrians were happy to back the UN coalition and as part of the deal, they also secured substantial financial support and the guarantee of a free hand in Lebanon.

In June 2000, after years of failing health, President Assad died. Having fallen out with his brother, Rifaat, some years earlier, and with the accidental death of his eldest son, Basil, in 1994, Assad had selected his second son, Bashar, as heir. While domestic policy has seen something of a relaxation under Bashar, Western hopes that the Syrian Arab Republic would pursue a more pro-Western line have proved misguided. In the vocabulary of the US Bush administration, the Syrian Arab Republic is a 'state of concern'. The Syrians have provided some assistance to the Western 'War against Terror' but were strongly opposed to the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Syria pulled its forces out of Lebanon in 2005, after coming under intense international pressure after being implicated by a UN report for the assassination of former premier of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri. Both Syria and Pro Syria Lebanese officials were thought to be involved although this has been strongly denied by Damascus.

In early 2011, as part of the Arab Spring, protests broke out in Syria, influenced by other protests in the region. Protesters called for political reforms and the reinstatement of civil rights, as well as an end to the state of emergency which has been in place since 1963. On 22 March, as a result of the protests, the Governor of Daraa was fired, but this did not satisfy the protesters, and demonstrations increased. On 29 March, the entire Syrian cabinet was asked to resign by the president. Adel Safar was named the new prime minister and his new cabinet was sworn into office on 14 April 2011. The Emergency Law was rescinded on 21 April 2011. On May 18, 2011, United States president Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six other senior Syrian officials as a response to the bloody crackdown on political protests, with cities falling under siege by government forces and army tanks beginning heavy shelling of residential areas and later the involvement of the Syrian Navy. As a result of the violent crack down and the forced detainment of thousands of protesters, an increasing number of refugees tried to escape to Turkey, and as international interest and involvement increases, Syria will likely continue to dominate the headlines for some time.