Population: 23,865,423

Significant population density along the Mediterranean coast; larger concentrations found in the major cities of Damascus, Aleppo (the country's largest city), and Hims (Homs); more than half of the population lives in the coastal plain, the province of Halab, and the Euphrates River valley.

Area: 185,180 km²

slightly more than 1.5 times the size of Pennsylvania

The capital of Damascus -- located at an oasis fed by the Barada River -- is thought to be one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities; there are 42 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights (2017).