The semi-presidential republic of Syria (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية) in West Asia with its capital Damascus covers 185,180 km². It borders Israel to the south and Jordan, to the west by Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, to the north by Turkey and to the east by Iraq. Due to the civil war, there is no sovereign state structure.
Parts of the northeast were part of the cultural landscape of Mesopotamia. The coastal area and parts of Lebanon were part of Phoenicia in the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Phoenician city-states included Arados (Arwad) and Ugarit (Latakia). Viticulture was already practiced here at least at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The wines were delivered to Egypt to the court of the pharaohs. The capital Damascus was founded around 1500 BC as the center of the Aramean empire and is mentioned in the Bible as a center of viticulture. In the 8th century BC, the land came under the rule of Assyria and in 64 BC it was conquered by the Romans under Pompey (106-48 BC). As early as the 2nd century BC, glass was produced and the art of glassblowing was invented.
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