The Lebanon–Syria border is 394 km (245 miles) in length and runs from the Mediterranean coast in the north to the tripoint with Israel in the south.
The Lebanon–Syria border is 394 km (245 miles) in length and runs from the Mediterranean coast in the north to the tripoint with Israel in the south.
Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north and northwest, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a provisional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 26 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 56th-most populous and 87th-largest country.
The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital under the Mamluk Sultanate. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coups and coup attempts between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief pan-Arab union with Egypt, which was terminated following a 1961 coup d'état. The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a hereditary dictatorship. Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar.
Mount Hermon (/ˈhɜːrmən/ HUR-mən) is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m (9,232 ft) above sea level, is the highest point in Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, known as "Hermon Hotel", located at 2,814 metres (9,232 ft). The southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located with a top elevation of 2,040 metres (6,690 ft).
The Anti-Lebanon mountains (Arabic: جبال لبنان الشرقية, romanized: Jibāl Lubnān ash-Sharqiyyah, lit. 'eastern mountains of Lebanon'), also called Mount Amana, are a southwest–northeast-trending, c. 150 kilometres (93 miles) long mountain range that forms most of the border between Syria and Lebanon. The border is largely defined along the crest of the range. Most of the range lies in Syria.
The Shebaa Farms, also spelled Sheba'a Farms (Arabic: مزارع شبعا, Mazāri' Šib‘ā; Hebrew: חוות שבעא Havot Sheba‘a), also known as Mount Dov (Hebrew: הר דב, romanized: Har Dov), is a strip of land on the Lebanese–Syrian border that is currently occupied by Israel. Lebanon claims the Shebaa Farms as its own territory, and Syria agrees with this position. Israel claims it is part of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory that it has occupied since 1967 and effectively annexed in 1981. This dispute plays a significant role in contemporary Israel–Lebanon relations.
The territory is named for the farms within it which were historically tended by the inhabitants of the Lebanese town of Shebaa. It is about 11 kilometres (7 mi) long and 2.5 kilometres (2 mi) wide. The French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon administration did not demarcate the border between Lebanon and Syria, nor was this done later by Lebanese and Syrian governments. Documents from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that inhabitants paid taxes to the Lebanese government. From the early 1950s to Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War, Syria was the de facto ruling power. In 1978 Israel invaded and occupied Southern Lebanon. In 1981, the Golan Heights, including the Shebaa Farms, were annexed by Israel, a move not recognized by the international community. Israel considers it part of the Golan Heights and continues to hold it, along with the Golan, under military occupation.
The Battle of Kadesh took place in the 13th century BC between the Egyptian Empire led by pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire led by king Muwatalli II. Their armies engaged each other at the Orontes River, just upstream of Lake Homs and near the archaeological site of Kadesh, along what is today the Lebanon–Syria border.
The battle is generally dated to May 1274 BC, as accounted by Egyptian chronology, and is the earliest pitched battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known. It is believed to be the largest battle ever fought involving chariots, numbering at a total of 5,000 to 6,000.