Syria (region)

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Syria (Arabic: ٱلشَّام, romanized: Ash-Shām or Shām), also known as Greater Syria (Arabic: سُورِيَا الكبرى, romanized: Sūriyah l-Kubra) or Syria-Palestine, is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Historically, the term "Syria" referred to the area between the Taurus Mountains in the north, Sinai in the south-west, and Arabia in the south-east; however, in modern times it is used to refer solely to the Syrian Arab Republic. The term is originally derived from Assyria, an ancient Semitic-speaking civilization centered in northern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. During the Hellenistic period, the term Syria was applied to the entire Levant as Coele-Syria. Under Roman rule, the term was used to refer to the province of Syria, later divided into Syria Phoenicia and Coele Syria, and to the province of Syria Palaestina. Under the Byzantines, the provinces of Syria Prima and Syria Secunda emerged out of Coele Syria. After the...

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