General Resources : Syria

Syria is an extremely ancient land with a rich cultural heritage. Some of the oldest known civilization grew up there. Until 1918, Syria included much of what are now Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon and parts of Turkey. Syria is a republic and its constitution, adopted in 1973, calls the nation a socialist popular democracy. Under Syrias Constitution, the president heads the Baath Party which controls Syrian politics. The partys power rests on its control of the nationss armed forces. The Baath party is committed to socialism and to the political union of all the Arab countries. Damascus, the capital, is claimed to be the oldest capital city in the world.

Al-Bab.com  (http://www.al-bab.com)
Provides a quick briefing via links to other sites including information on travel and cites recent publications about Syria.

Al-Bawaba  (http://albawaba.com/)
It is a major portal site that links a number of other websites on all the Arab countries. It contains up-to-date information on the political, business, social, cultural and religious aspects of a particular country. Just click on the name of the country for information in English and Arabic.

Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development  (http://www.arabfund.org/)
Search for information on projects funded throughout the Arab world.

Arab German Consulting  (http://www.arab.de/links.htm)
Major portal site on the Arab countries. Includes up-to-date information on the government, history, economy, education systems.

Arab Net  (http://www.arab.net/)
It is a major Arab website that contains information on the government, history, geography, business, culture, transport, tourism of each country, and provides links to other relevant websites.

CIA -- The World Factbook  (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html)
An annual publication of the CIA, contains up-to-date information on all aspects of the political, social and military history of a particular country.

Country Reports about ...  (http://www.countryreports.org//)
Offers links to sites about many countries by such subjects as government, the military, economy, the weather, etc.

Damascus Online (http://www.damascus-online.com/)
“Everything Syrian!” includes history, poetry, photos, a tourist guide, information about the Golan, and an encyclopedia
(Arabic and English)

Development Gateway Country Overview  (http://www.developmentgateway.org/)
“The Development Gateway helps communities, organizations, and individuals build partnerships, share ideas, and work together to reduce poverty.” Search by development projects as well as by country to identify additional web sites and documents.

Encyclopedia.com  (http://www.encyclopedia.com)
From the Electronic Library, searching the Encyclopedia.com by country provides numerous narrative articles on its history, culture, politics.

Fares.net  (http://www.fares.net)
Site includes a directory and a list of sites on a wide range of subjects including tourism, entertainment, culture, the media, news and business in English and Arabic. Search under the name of the country.

Infoplease  (http://www.infoplease.com/)
Part of the electronic Learning Network, this homepage allows searches by country which yield articles in almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical works, etc. Additional reference links are provided as well.

Islamic Calendar Converter  (http://www.oriold.unizh.ch/static/hegira.html )
This English language website not only converts the present Gregorian date, in common use in the West, to its modern Hijra equivalent (in common use in the Islamic World), it also provides a mechanism, based on software developed by Waleed A. Muhanna, to convert all past dates from Gregorian-Hijra or Hijra-Gregorian.

Lonely Planet - Destinations  (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/)
Search by country to find information on travel, attractions, history, culture, and environment of that location.

Middle East – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/global/index.cfm?fa=proj&id=107&proj=zme)
The main feature of the Carnegie Arabic Web Portal is the Arabic-language version of the Arab Reform Bulletin, an online monthly journal on the latest political reform developments from Arab and Western perspectives. Also included are Arabic translations of select Carnegie Papers, commentaries on the Middle East and related subjects such as nuclear nonproliferation, as well as writings originally published in Arabic.

OneWorld.net  (http://us.oneworld.net/)
Searchable by country, regions and topics. Includes current headlines and special reports.

People Group of Syria  (http://www.whn.org/content/Syria.htm)
It provides information about Syrian Geography location :Boarding the Mediterranean Sea, between Lebanon and Turkey area.

Princeton University Library: Near Eastern Studies Resources  (http://www.princeton.edu/~nes/)
Princeton Library’s site dedicated to Near Eastern Studies provides not only invaluable information about Princeton’s programs and collections, but also extensive links to sites (libraries, universities, institutes, think tanks, directories, gateways, newspapers, etc.) around the world concerning all aspects of the discipline.

St. Michael Orthodox Church  (http://stmichaelorthodoxchurch.com/)
Founded from families who came from the countries of Syria and Lebanon.

Syria  (http://www.ramijarjour)
It provides information about the country and it has links.

Syria Gate  (http://www.syriagate.com/)
It gives general information on Syria: directory of Syrian business. It offers also web services such as history, design and advertising.

Syria-daily news and current events  (http://www.syriadaily.com/ )
Covers Arab and Middle East issues: business, politics, sports and science.

Syria. The Cradle of Civilization  (http://www.syrianstudents.com/Media/Swish_file/syria_cradle.htm)
It features national culture, history, religion, and information on natural resource.

Syrian Statistics (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/sy-syria/)
Website devoted to giving statistics on many facets of Syria, including agriculture, transportation, and population

United Nations  (http://www.un.org)
The official site of the United Nations provides articles, reports, etc. in several languages on all aspects of the initiatives and mission of that organization as well as on the contemporary life, culture, society, international relations, etc. of all the countries and peoples of the world.

United Nations ReliefWeb  (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?openForm  )
“ReliefWeb is a project of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)... serving the information needs of the humanitarian relief community” Offers news updates to crisis situations around the world and includes information about refugee camps and other relief efforts.

United States. Agency for International Development. Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC)  (http://dec.usaid.gov/)
“The purpose of the DEC is to strengthen USAID's development projects, activities, and programs by making ... development experience documents available to USAID offices and mission staff, PVO's, NGO's, universities and research institutions, developing countries, and the public worldwide.”

United States. Department of State  (http://www.state.gov)
Numerous documents concerning diplomatic and international relations, travel advice and warnings relating to the countries of the world are available on the State Department’s official site by searching under a particular country’s name.

United States. Library of Congress Country Studies  (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/)
A series published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Studies Handbook Program sponsored by the Department of the Army.

United States. Library of Congress. Virtual Reference Shelf  (http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html)
The Library of Congress has mounted this useful site on its home page to give scholars and researchers access to common online sources which are excellent for initial stages of research. These online tools are organized by subject and format, e.g., "Almanacs and Fast Facts," "Directories," "Libraries," etc.

University of Texas Middle East Website  (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/cmes/)
Excellent website on the government, politics, news and media, education and the social sciences in the Middle East.

World Desk Reference  (http://www.dorlingkindersley-uk.co.uk/)
Searchable by country, this is the online version of the handbook with more than 5000 illustrations and maps.