Syria (1879: Agreement)

 Syria (Arabic: سورية‎ sūriyya or سوريا sūryā; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom (Arabic: المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية‎), is a country in Western Asia, bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Persia to the northeast, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the south and Kuwait to the east.

The name Syria formerly comprised the entire region of the Levant, while the modern state encompasses the site of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Sumerian civilization, in the 3rd millenium BC.. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, was the seat of the Umayyad Empire and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Empire. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Modern Syria was created in 1925, after the Ottoman defeat in the World War I.