Names of the Levant attributed to the region's easterly location on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Egyptians called the Levant "Reṯenu". Ancient Egyptian texts (c. 14th century BCE) called the entire coastal area along the Mediterranean Sea between modern Egypt and Turkey "rṯnw" (conventionally "Reṯenu"). Reṯenu was subdivided into four regions: "Kharu" ("ḥꜣ-rw"), North Syria, "Amurru", South Syria (the land of the biblical Amorites), "Rmnn", Lebanon, "Ysriar" ("ysrỉꜣr"), Israel, and "Ḏahy" ("ḏꜣhy";"Ṯahi", "Ḏahi"), the region of Palestine (comprising the southern and central Levant—west of the Jordan River and south of Lebanon—and all the kingdoms, territories, tribes, etc., that existed within that
Wildlife of Syria south and Iraq to the east. The topography consists of a narrow coastal plain in the west which rises up to the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range which runs parallel with the coast. South of this is the Homs Gap, beyond which are Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains which separate Syria from Lebanon. Further east is a large area of steppe or Badia in the centre of the country. This is divided by the River Euphrates, on which a dam was built in 1973 creating a reservoir, Lake Assad, which is the largest lake in Syria. In the east and