Plan your trip to Syria

Syria lies on the Mediterranean Sea bordered by Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and Lebanon to the southwest. In the ancient city of Ebla, discovered in 1975, archaeological digs and writings have uncovered a past society challenging those of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The city alone had an estimated population of 260,000 around 2500 to 2400 B.C. Damascus, the modern capital, was settled around 2500 B.C. as well, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. A long list of occupiers, from Canaanites to Babylonians to Greeks to Romans, with several more in between, controlled the area until Ottoman Turks took control in 1517. After World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire, France administered Syria until its independence in 1946.

Outside of Damascus, visitors can take in the Crac des Chevaliers, the Fortress of the Knights, a pristine castle built by crusaders in the middle ages and Palmyra, the remains of an ancient city in central Syria and the most well known tourist attraction in the country.