SYRIA (Arab. E'sham, Turk. Soristan), a division of Asiatic Turkey, bounded on the n. by portions of Asia Minor, on the w. by the Levant, and on the s. by Arabia Petrwa; on the e. and s.e. its boundary is rendered indefinite, in great part, by the sands of the desert, but at length becomes fixed by the course of the Euphrates. It is divided into several governments, which frequently change their limits. They are usually named after the principal towns—Aleppo, Damascus, and Beyrout. The area is about 146,000 sq.m. • pop. about 2,250,000. The whole region is traversed by a double mountain-chain— of which Lebanon (q.v) forms the highest part—touching in its northern extremities the Alma Dagh (anc. _irons Amanus), and in its southern forming the Sinaitic range. The central part of this mountain system, which in many places exhibits the characteristics of a plateau, presents on the w. a steep front toward the Mediteranean, but on the e. rolls gradually away into the level uplands of the Syrian wilderness. The most notice able features of the long furrow between the double ridge, beginning at its southern end, the gulf of Akaba, are the waterless wady of Arabah, the narrow, deep-sunken region known as El Glair, through which the river Jordan flows, E ud which embraces the Dead sea and the sea of Galilee, and the vale of Ccele-Syria (q.v.), and its great continuation northward, watered by the Nahr-el-Asy (anc. Orontes). The western ridge is broken through in three places: in the n. by the lower Orontes; in the middle near Tripolis— where the chain of Lebanon properly terminates—and further s., near Tyre, by the Leontes. South of Tyre it recommences in the hill country of western Palestine (q.v.), which finally passes desert plateau of El Tyh, in the Sinaitic peninsula. The eastern ridge is less sharply defined, its most conspicuous elevations being Anti-Libanos, the mountains of Moab (east of the Dead sea), and Mount Seir, overlooking the wady Arabah. The principal rivers are the Orontes (q.v.), the Leontes, the Jordan (q.v.),
the Barada or Abana, the river of Damascus. The only lakes worth mentioning are the sea (q.v.) and the sea of Galilee.
Although Syria belongs to the countries comprised within the Asiatic rain-zone, yet in general the climate is excessively dry and hot, differing little from that of Arabia. Drought and scantiness of vegetation characterize-almost equally the uplands and the Only where the mountains are lofty, the streams abundant, and the atmosphere somewhat maritime, as in the terraced slopes of Lebanon, do we find some ap proach to tropical luxuriance in flower, and fruit, and tree. Forests of evergreen, beau tiful grassy pastures, and meadow-tracts are found there; and wheat, maize, rice, etc., are largely produced. The cultivation of the vine, the cotton tree, the mulberry, and also the finer sorts of fruits, as the olive and fig, is considerable, while indigo and sugar cane are raised in the valleys of the Jordan and the region round about the Dead sea. The fauna of Syria, like its climate and vegetation, is similar to that of Arabia. The camel is of almost as much importance as further s., and the Syrian deserts, particu larly toward the n,, are the home of gazelles, hyenas, jackals, bears, buffaloes, and other wild animals.
The greater part of the Syrian mountains is limestone; mountain limestone in Le banon, chalk in Anti-Lebanon, and Jura limestone in Palestine. In the last of these volcanic formations occur, especially in the region of the Jordan and the Dead sea, where hot springs, beds of bitumen and sulphur, the shapes of the hills, and the fre quent earthquakes afford unmistakable evidence of volcanic activity. Salt is the mineral of much consequence, and is exported in considerable quantities; coal, how ever, is worked near Beyroot. Sheep, goats with hanging ears and silky hair, cattle, mules, and asses form, as in ancient times, a great part of the wealth of the inhabitants.