The Syrian Arab Republic is located in the Middle East at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and south-east, Jordan to the south, and Lebanon to the south-east. The capital of Syria is Damascus; other large cities are Aleppo, Lattakia, Homs, and Deir Ez-Zor.

Syria covers an area more than 185,000 square kilometers; its terrain, climate and vegetation are diverse. Mountains dominate the western and south-western regions and separate the narrow coastal plain form the interior. The highest mountain range straddles the boundary with Lebanon and is high enough to get heavy snow in winter; most of the remainder of Syria to the east of these mountains is a plateau.

The coastal plain has warm, humid summers and mild, wet winters and gets enough rain for crops to be grown without irrigation. The interior, by contrast, has cold winters, especially in the north, and extremely hot summers, particularly in the east.

Much of the interior is desert, or semi-desert. The two major rivers, the Euphrates and Orients, originate in Turkey and Lebanon.