History of Syria

1 week ago - The ruins of Ebla, near Idlib in northern Syria, were discovered and excavated in 1975. Ebla appears to have been an East Semitic speaking city-state founded around 3000 BCE. At its zenith, from about 2500 to 2400 BCE, it may have controlled an empire reaching north to Anatolia, east to Mesopotamia ...

3 days ago - 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.

When the United States became independent, Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire and its foreign relations were conducted through the Sultan’s government at Istanbul (Constantinople). In 1922, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations approved a French Mandate for Syria ...

November 16, 2025 - The short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria emerged in 1920, which was however soon committed under the French Mandate, which produced the short-lived autonomous State of Aleppo, State of Damascus (later State of Syria), Alawite State and Jabal al-Druze ...

Syria, officially Syrian Arab Republic, Country, Middle East, along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Area: 71,480 sq mi (185,180 sq km). Population: (2025 est.) 23,607,000. Capital: Damascus.

June 17, 2014 - The modern name of Syria is claimed by some scholars to have derived from Herodotus' habit of referring to the whole of Mesopotamia as 'Assyria' and, after the Assyrian Empire fell in 612 BCE, the western part continued to be called 'Assyria' ...

Alexander the Great added Syria to his empire in 333 B.C.E., and one of his generals, Seleucus I, who founded Antioch in Ancient Syria (located in Turkey in 2007), continued Greek rule. The area, and much of western Asia, passed to the Seleucids under Antiochus III and Antiochus IV, and became ...

Syria became part of the land of Islam in AD 640 and was a cultural, religious and artistic center. During the Middle Ages, Syria came under the control of the Crusaders and was part of the Ottoman Empire from the early fifteen hundreds until the end of the nineteenth century.

2 weeks ago - Syria as a country is still relatively young, but people have been living in the region known as Syria since ancient times. During the classical eras of human history, Syria itself has been controlled by a wide variety of peoples. Some of the most common examples include the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Hittites, and the Sumerians.

July 26, 1999 - After Syria gained its independence in 1946, political life in the country was highly unstable, owing in large measure to intense friction between the country’s social, religious, and political groups.

Other articles where history of Syria is discussed: Syria: History: The earliest prehistoric remains of human habitation found in Syria and Palestine (stone implements, with bones of elephants and horses) are of the Middle Paleolithic Period. In the next stage are remains of rhinoceroses and ...

In 539 BC, Syria became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire, referred to as "Beyond the River." The conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC led to a division of the territory between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires, establishing cities like ...

Syria history outline and key figures in Syria’s history.

Under the Persian Empire, with its efficient administrative system, Syria’s standard of living improved (6th–4th cent. B.C.). Alexander the Great conquered Syria between 333 and 331 B.C., and his short-lived empire was followed by that of the Seleucidae (see Seleucus I), who are usually ...

January 14, 2019 - 1958 February - Syria and Egypt form the United Arab Republic. Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser heads the new state. He orders the dissolution of Syrian political parties, to the dismay of the Baath party, which had campaigned for union.

Final Report And Recommendations Of The Syria Study Group

October 27, 2022 - Humans have settled in Syria for nearly 5,000 years. The earliest recorded civilization in the area was the Kingdom of Ebla, founded around 3,500 B.C.

September 3, 2021 - This sought-after land was occupied by all sorts of ancient empires—the Egyptians, Hittites, Sumerians, Mitanni, Assyrians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Amorites, Persians, and eventually, Greeks with the conquest of Alexander the Great (‘Syria’ means ‘formerly Assyria’ in ancient Greek, and it’s assumed this is when the area was given its name).

May 27, 2025 - Modern-day Syria, a country located in the Middle East on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, is one of the most ancient inhabited regions on Earth. The oldest human remains found in Syria date back to roughly 700,000 years ago.