Names of the Levant homeland proper with the northwest coastal region of the Levant, centered at Phoenician cities such as Ugarit, Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. Today, this place is usually equated with modern Lebanon and the coast of modern Syria. Also there is a modern town in Turkey called "Finike" which is thought to have derived by the Lycians who traded with Phoenicians in ancient times. Israel: Judea: The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were Iron Age Semitic nations spanning from Edom to Assyria. Today the modern State of Israel controls much of the former territory of the ancient Israelite/Judean kingdoms. According to the
Postage stamps and postal history of Syria Postage stamps and postal history of Syria This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Syria. Syria, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. The French were awarded a mandate to govern Syria at the Paris Peace conference of 1918 and Syria attained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire until the defeat of the Turks in the First World War and an