Syria

General country information

Capital	Damascus
Government	republic under an authoritarian military-dominated regime
Area	185180 km²
Population / Density	19747586 (July 2008 est.) / 106/km²
Currency	Syrian Pound (SYP) currency converter
GDP - per capita (PPP)	$ 4500 (2007 est.)
HDI	0.724 (2005)
Official language(s)	Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English somewhat understood
Religions	Sunni Muslim 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Climate	mostly desert; hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and mild, rainy winters (December to February) along coast; cold weather with snow or sleet periodically in Damascus
Interesting links	Country Insights - Centre for Intercultural Learning (Canada) Country information from the CIA-Website Country information from Wikipedia Ministry of Tourism of Syria Syria Daily Syria Daily is part of the WN Network which ranks as one of the top sites for world news on the Internet, reaching around 12 million unique web users in the average month. WN continues to rapidly expand its user-base, with an increase in users from 30 million in 2000 to more than 150 million in 2003.