Plant and animal life

Yew, lime, and fir trees grow on the mountain slopes. Thedate palm is found in the Euphrates valley. In both coastal and inland regions, plants include grains, olive trees, grapevines, apricot trees, oaks, and poplars. Lemon and orange trees grow along the coast. Garigue, adegenerate Mediterranean scrub, and maquis, a thick scrubby underbrush, cover many slopes.

Forests make up only a very small percentage of thecountry’s total area and are primarily found in the mountains, especially in the Al-Anṣariyyah Mountains. Glossy-leaved and thorny drought-resistant shrubs such as myrtle, boxwood, turpentine, broom, arbutus, and wild olive abound to the south. Excessive exploitation of the forests for their wood has largely turned them into scrub. A reforestation project has been undertaken in the mountains north ofLatakia, however, and some forests are protected by the government. Commercially important forest plants include sumac, which is used as a spice, wild pistachio, which is important for its oil-rich fruit, laurel, which is used in the production of cosmetics, and mulberry, whose leaves are fed to silkworms. Pine tree branches are used for smoking tobacco leaves. Other useful plants are winter vegetables such askhubbayzah, a kind of spinach;ʿakkūb, a flowering plant; and truffles. Licorice is widely exploited for its root, which is used in thepharmaceutical industry.

The steppe is characterized by the absence of natural tree cover, except for some sparsely distributed hawthorns. All other trees—such as those in the orchards ofDamascus andAleppo and along the banks of the Orontes and Euphrates rivers—arecultivated.

For a brief period before June, the land is covered with a variety of flowering and grassy plants. Under theimplacable sun of June, however, the plants soon wither, casting off their seeds onto the dry ground.

Wild animal life is sparse. Wolves, hyenas, foxes, badgers, wild boar, and jackals can still be found in remote areas. Deer, bears, squirrels, and such small carnivores as martens and polecats are also found, while desert animals include gazelles and jerboas (nocturnal jumping rodents). Vipers, lizards, and chameleons are common in the desert. Eagles, buzzards, kites, and falcons frequent the mountains. Harmful insects include mosquitoes, sandflies, grasshoppers, and occasionally locusts.

The mule is thebeast of burden in the mountains, and the camel on the steppe. Other domesticated animals include horses, donkeys, cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens. Bees also are kept.

Ethnic and linguistic groups

The Syrian people evolved from several origins over a long period of time. The Greek and Roman ethnic influence was negligible in comparison with that of theSemitic peoples ofArabia and Mesopotamia—Aramaeans,Assyrians,Chaldeans, andCanaanites. Later the Turks, like the Greeks and Romans before them, influenced political and economic structures but failed to produce any noticeable change in the dominantArab character of the Syrian people.

There is a rough correspondence between ethnic and linguistic groupings, although some ethnic groups have been partiallyassimilated by theArab majority, which includes the country’sBedouin population. AKurdish minority also resides in Syria; much of the Kurdish population is Arabic-speaking and largely resides in the country’s northeast. The country’sArmenian population may be divided into two groups—the early settlers, who have been more or less Arabized, and the later immigrants, who arrived afterWorld War I and retained their identity and language. TheTurkmen intermingle freely with the Kurds and Arabs, but they have lost none of their ethnic identity in some northern villages. Syriac-speakingAssyrians who immigrated to Syria fromIraq as refugees in the 1930s quickly assimilated, owing to intermarriage and migration to the cities.

The great majority of the population speaksArabic. Other languages spoken in Syria includeKurdish, spoken in the extreme northeast and northwest;Armenian, spoken in Aleppo and other major cities; andTurkish, spoken in villages east of the Euphrates and along the border withTurkey. Adyghian, aKabardian (Circassian) language, is also spoken by a minority of the population (seeCaucasian languages: Abkhazo-Adyghian languages). English and French are understood, particularly in urban centers and among the educated.

Religion

The overwhelming majority of the population areMuslims. Sunni Muslims account for about three-fourths of Syria’s Muslim population and are in the majority everywhere in the country except in the southernSweida (Al-Suwaydāʾ)muḥāfaẓah (governorate) and the Latakia governorate in the north. TheAlawites (aShʿi subsect) are the next largest group, and most live in the Latakia governorate or in the governorates ofHoms andHama. Most of the country’sDruze population lives in Sweida governorate, and the rest in Damascus, Aleppo, andQuneitra.

Christiansconstitute about one-tenth of the Syrian population. They are divided into several churches, which includeGreek Orthodox,Greek Catholic, Syrian Orthodox,Armenian Catholic,Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox),Syrian Catholic,Maronite,Protestant,Nestorian, Latin, andChaldean. There is also a very smallJewish population, the remainder of what once had been a flourishingcommunity before being subjected to limitations on travel, employment, and other restrictions imposed by the Syrian government. Following international pressure on Syria to allow them to leave the country, much of the Jewish population chose to emigrate in the late 20th century; many chose to settle inNew York City.