Friday, May 22, 2009

SYRIA, A JOURNEY TO THE PAST – PART 1

8/5/2009 (Friday)

My mom was going to have a conference at Syria, and because the date will be just right after my final professional exam, so I took this chance to have a break/holiday with my mom coz I know I may don’t have such opportunity once I start working. It has been my dream to travel to the Middle East since I had my umrah 8 years ago. This is because I would like to learn more on their cultures, history and environments. That’s why I chose to go to Syria...

Syria, as called in Arabic: سورية sūriyyaħ or سوريا sūriyā is officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية العربية السورية al-jumhūriyyaħ al-ʕarabiyyaħ as-sūriyyaħ), an Arab country in Southwest Asia. From the world map, we can see that this country is bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north.


The name Syria, formerly comprised the entire region of the Levant (Arabic: بلاد الشام, Bilad ash-Shām, also commonly known as الشام ash-Shām), which comprising Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, and Syria. However, the modern state encompasses the site of several ancient kingdoms and empires. In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Empire and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Empire. Damascus is widely regarded as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, which means the city has been lived by the people since 9 thousand years ago until present.

The population is 80% Muslim, mainly Sunni Muslim but with significant Alawi, Druze and Christian minorities. Ethnically, some 90% of the population is Arab, and the state is ruled by the Baath Party according to Arab nationalist principles, while approximately 10% belong to the Kurdish minority.

The currency issued by Bank of Syria is Syrian Pound (SYP), also called as Lira Syria. 1 Syrian Pound value is not as same as RM1, therefore each time I want to buy things, I divided the Syrian Pound by 13 as 1USD is equal to SYP46.5. Complicated? I thought so...

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