le - were withdrawn in April of 2005. Over the past
decade, Syria and Israel have held occasional peace talks over the
return of the Golan Heights.

Geography Syria

Location:
Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and
Turkey

Geographic coordinates:
35 00 N, 38 00 E

Map references:
Middle East

Area:
total: 185,180 sq km
land: 184,050 sq km
water: 1,130 sq km
note: includes 1,295 sq km of Israeli-occupied territory

Area - comparative:
slightly larger than North Dakota

Land boundaries:
total: 2,253 km
border countries: Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon
375 km, Turkey 822 km

Coastline:
193 km

Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 41 nm

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

Terrain:
primarily semiarid and desert plateau; narrow coastal plain;
mountains in west

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: unnamed location near Lake Tiberias -200 m
highest point: Mount Hermon 2,814 m

Natural resources:
petroleum, phosphates, chrome and manganese ores, asphalt, iron
ore, rock salt, marble, gypsum, hydropower

Land use:
arable land: 25.22%
permanent crops: 4.43%
other: 70.35% (2001)

Irrigated land:
12,130 sq km (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
dust storms, sandstorms

Environment - current issues:
deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification; water
pollution from raw sewage and petroleum refining wastes; inadequate
potable water

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered
Species, Hazardous Wastes, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification

Geography - note:
there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (February 2002 est.)

People Syria

Population:
18,448,752
note: in addition, about 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights - 20,000 Arabs (18,000 Druze and 2,000 Alawites) and
about 20,000 Israeli settlers (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.4% (male 3,556,795/female 3,350,267)
15-64 years: 59.3% (male 5,601,971/female 5,333,799)
65 years and over: 3.3% (male 288,868