Geography

Area – 185,180km²

Most of Syria is desert.

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Weather

Summer
Winter

Most of Syria has hot, dry, sunny summers (June to August) and mild, rainy winters (December to February). This is normal in a desert. Next to the sea it gets colder during the winter and sometimes it snows in Demascus. The temperature and rainfall graphs are for Demascus.

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People

Population

People (Ethnic Groups)

Religion

Syria has one of the world's fastest population growth rates in the world; almost half of all Syrians are less than fifteen years old.

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Local Traditions

In Syria Friday is the weekend rather than Saturday and Sunday.

A lot of people in Syria are Muslim and so there are a lot of Muslim traditions, for example

• People do not eat pork
  
• People do not drink alcohol
  
• During Ramadan, a big Muslim festival, Muslims do not eat, drink or smoke between sunrise and sunset
  
• Muslims worship in a mosque, they do not wear shoes in the mosque


• Women wear a long dress and cover their hair
• Women sometimes go to school and work but usually only in the cities

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Language

Arabic is the official language in Syria. It has a different alphabet to English and looks different:

People read and write Arabic from right to left

!uoy teem ot ecin ,gninrom dooG
which is opposite to how we write English
Good morning, nice to meet you!

There are a lot of other languages spoken in Syria too, e.g. Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian, French and English.

Here are some things you hear a lot in Syria

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Food

Syrians cook lots of vegetables, legumes and meats. The picture on the right is Sfeeha. It is made from ground beef and spices that are stuffed into pizza dough and baked in the oven.

The Syrian dinner table always has lots of delicious pastries on it. They are usually made of nuts, raisins or cheese and soaked in honey. The picture on the left is Baqlawa which is made of nuts and pastry covered with honey.

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Politics

President – Bashar al-ASAD

Prime Minister – Muhammad Naji al-UTRI

Syria has an elected government called the Majlis al-Shaab.

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