However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, in clockwise direction.

To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Greater Syria and the Mesopotamian plain.

It is a region of rolling hills and a broad plateau surface that extends into Syria.

After four years of war-torn London, Christie hoped she can return some day to Syria, which she described as " gentle fertile country and its simple people, who know how to laugh and how to enjoy life ; who are idle and gay, and who have dignity, good manners, and a great sense of humor, and to whom death is not terrible.

The Battle of Qarqar is mentioned in extra-biblical records, and was perhaps at Apamea where Shalmaneser III of Assyria fought a great confederation of princes from Cilicia, Northern Syria, Israel, Ammon, and the tribes of the Syrian desert ( 853 BC ), including Ahab ( A-ha-ab-bu < sup > mat </ sup >) ( Adad -' idri ).

This structure can be also seen as a series of concentric circles, where the gospel begins in the center, Jerusalem, and is expanding ever outward to Judea & Samaria, Syria, Asia Minor, Europe, and eventually to Rome.

It is from this period that the later Syria Vs Assyria naming controversy arises, the Seleucids applied the name not only to Assyria itself, but also to the lands to the west ( Aram modern Syria ) which had been part of the Assyrian empire.

This is the interpretation given in the fourth century by Saint Ambrose, Saint Ephraem of Syria and Saint Augustine.

* 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persian at Ar-Raqqah ( northern Syria ).

Of notable importance is Isaiah 7: 14, where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria ; the sign that will prove this is the forthcoming birth of a child called Emmanuel, " God With Us ".

The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia circa 4000 BC, in what is now modern day Iraq and Syria.

Today, it is mostly grown in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, India, Syria, Mexico, Chile, and China.

The Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in Aleppo, Syria is considered to be one of the oldest surviving church buildings in the world.

Couscous was taken from Syria to Turkey in the 16th century and is eaten in most of the southern provinces.

This miaphysite position, historically characterised by Chalcedonian followers as " monophysitism " though this is denied by the dissenters, formed the basis for the distinction from other churches of the Coptic Church of Egypt and Ethiopia and the " Jacobite " churches of Syria and Armenia ( see Oriental Orthodoxy ).

However, the Council is not accepted by several of the ancient eastern churches, including the Oriental Orthodox of Egypt, Syria and Armenia, and the Assyrian Church of the East.

The novel, which won the 2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction and will be published in English under the title Azazeel, is set in 5th-century Egypt and Syria and deals with the early history of Christianity.

The DFLP is believed to receive limited financial and military aid from Syria, where it is active in the Palestinian refugee camps.

It is unclear if Diocletian was present to assist the campaign ; he might have returned to Egypt or Syria.

In the Hauran in Syria, where timber is scarce the doors were made in stone, and one measuring by is in the British Museum ; the band on the meeting stile shows that it was one of the leaves of a double door.

Isaiah 8: 1-15 continues the previous chapter: the prophet tells of the birth of another child, his own son named Maher-shalal-hash-baz ( yet another symbolic name ), then predicts that after Ephraim and Syria are destroyed the Assyrians will come like a river in flood to " cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel " ( Isaiah 8: 8 ).

The Mamluk sultans and Syria later appointed an Abbasid Caliph in Cairo, but they were even more symbolic than by now marginalized Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad.

Each branch of the party, in turn, had a local governing body, the Regional Command, and although practical power became centred in the Syrian and Iraqi Regional Commands and the National Command of each faction assumed an essentially symbolic role, the party split in 1966, with different factions taking control in Syria and Iraq, each faction retained a pan-Arab structure.

The methods and concepts of al-Assad's restoration project were heavily criticized by UNESCO, but the general approach in Syria was that the mosque was more of a symbolic monument rather than a historical one and thus, its renovation could only enhance the mosque's symbolism.

Zengi united Aleppo, Mosul, and other cities of northern Syria, and intended to impose his control on Damascus in the south.

Born near Damascus in Syria, Abd al-Rahman, grandson of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, was the son of the Umayyad prince Mu ' awiyah ibn Hisham and a Berber mother.

* Abila Lysaniou, capital of ancient Abilene, northwest of Damascus, Syria

Isaiah's first significant acts as a prophet occurred when Judah, under king Ahaz, faced invasion from Israel and Aram Damascus ( Syria ) after refusing to join them in a revolt against Assyria, the dominant imperial power of the age.

Henry McMahon had exchanged letters with Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca in 1915, in which he had promised Hussein control of Arab lands with the exception of " portions of Syria " lying to the west of " the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo ".

A capable leader, Nabuchadnezzar II, conducted successful military campaigns in Aramea ( Syria ) and Phoenicia, forcing tribute from Damascus, Tyre and Sidon.

God then sends him out again, this time to Damascus to anoint Hazael as king of Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as his replacement.

In the 10th century Abd-ar-rahman III – from Hejaz, Arabian peninsula, grandson of the last caliph of Damascus, Syria – declared the Caliphate of Córdoba, effectively breaking all ties with the Egyptian and Syrian caliphs.

The Mamluk province of Bilad a-Sham ( Syria ) was conquered by Turkish Sultan Selim II in 1516 – 17, becoming a part of the province of Ottoman Syria for the next four centuries, first as the Damascus Eyalet and later as the Syria Vilayet ( following the Tanzimat reorganization of 1864 ).

* On February 12, 2008, Imad Mughnieh was killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.

Ahaz, king of Judah, at this crisis refused to co-operate with the kings of Israel and Syria in opposition to the Assyrians, and was on that account attacked and defeated by Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel (; ).

Railways are not commonly used for passenger transport in Jordan, the only passenger railway is that connecting Amman to Damascus in Syria.

* Hedjaz Jordan Railway: The only passenger railway currently operating in Jordan, connecting Amman to Damascus, in Syria, and passing through Zarqa and Mafraq.

Tutush's sons Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan and Duqaq inherited Aleppo and Damascus respectively, further dividing Syria amongst emirs antagonistic towards each other, as well as Kerbogha, the atabeg of Mosul.

The Muslim states of Syria were meanwhile gradually united by Nur ad-Din, who defeated the Principality of Antioch at the Battle of Inab in 1149 and gained control of Damascus in 1154.

He proclaimed himself Sultan of Egypt and Syria, entrusting Damascus to al-Mu ' azzam and al-Jazira to his other son al-Kamil.

According to the agreements reached at San Remo, France had its control over what was termed Syria recognised, the French having taken Damascus in 1920.

Wanting to maximize the area under its direct control, contain an Arab Syria centered on Damascus, and insure a defensible border, France established the Lebanon-Syrian border to the " Anti-Lebanon " mountains, on the far side of the Beqaa Valley, territory which had belonged to the province of Damascus for hundreds of years, and was far more attached to Damascus than Beirut by culture and influence.

* 1965 – Israeli spy Eli Cohen was hanged in Damascus, Syria.

* 2012 – The Damascus bombings were carried out using a pair of car bombs detonated by suicide bombers outside of a military intelligence complex in Damascus, Syria, killing 55 people and injuring 400 others