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Syria Map & Sites

Damascus Aleppo Lattakia Palmyra (Tadmor) Apamea Bosra (Dar'a) Crac des Chevaliers Deir Ezzor Dura Europos Ebla (Tel Mardikh) Hama Homs Maaloula Mari (Tel Hariri) Philipapolis (Shahba) Qalb Lozeh Qanawat St. Simeon Sydnaya Ugarit (Ras Shamra) People of Syria were the inventors of those simple-looking magic-working signs, called alphabets; through which most of the literatures of the world are preserved. No invention compares in importance with that of the alphabet, developed and disseminated by the merchants and scribes of ancient Lebanon. It was from these Phoenicians, who called themselves Caananites, that the Greeks derived their letters, in turn passing them on to the Romans and the Slavs, and hence to all people of Europe.

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The Aramaeans in turn likewise borrowed these symbols and passed them on to the Arabians, who transmitted them to the Persians and Indians and other peoples of Asia, as well as to the inhabitants of Africa.
Had the people of Syria rendered no other service, this would have been enough to mark them out among the greatest benefactors of humanity.
Their contribution, however, did not stop there.
In their narrow land more historical and cultural events, colorful and dynamic, occurred than perhaps in any area of comparable size; events that made the history of Syria a replica in miniature of the history of most of the civilized world.