Syria's Cities

SYRIA, a Middle Eastern country located east of Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey, northeast of Israel, north of Jordan, and west of Iraq, has several major population centers like other countries in the Middle East and Asia. Aleppo (Ḥalab in Arabic) is the largest city with over 2 million residents. Damascus (Dimashq), located in the southern part of the country near Lebanon, is the capital and second largest city with a population of almost 2 million (as of this post). The cities with populations between 100,000 and 1 million are Ar Raqqah, Hamath (Ḥamāh), the third largest city of Homs (Ḥimṣ), and the coastal city of Latakia (Al-Lādhiqīyah). The people of Syria are still encountering extreme hardships as a result of the civil war and the Assad government which severely restricted freedoms for them. Most Syrians are Muslims.