ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Syria's capabilities and role in brutal civil war. Historical-geographical Syria, lying between the Mediterranean and the middle Euphrates, has often functioned as the geographical keystone of the Middle East. In the western and northern parts of Syria, many of the earliest known settlements date well back into the ninth millennium BCE. Some of the earliest pottery ever found was discovered on the banks of the Euphrates, and Damascus claims the title of the world's oldest continuously inhabited capital city. When the Arab Muslims arrived, Byzantines, weakened by conflict with the Sassanians, were unable to defend their possessions, and in 636 CE historic Syria was the first area to fall to the Muslims after their eruption from the Hijaz. This long and complex history, under such a variety of cultures and rulers, endowed modern Syria with an almost uncountable number of sites and edifices with considerable potential to support a major tourism industry.
