Syria (region) Gouraud, in breach of the conditions of the mandate, subdivided the French Mandate of Syria into six states. They were the states of Damascus (1920), Aleppo (1920), Alawite State (1920), Jabal Druze (1921), the autonomous Sanjak of Alexandretta (1921) (modern-day Hatay in Turkey), and Greater Lebanon (1920) which later became the modern country of Lebanon. The region has sites that are significant to Abrahamic religions: Syria (region) The region of Syria (, Hieroglyphic Luwian: "Sura/i"; ; in modern literature called "Greater Syria", "Syria-Palestine", or the Levant) is an area located east of the Mediterranean sea. Throughout history, the region has
Geography of Lebanon into the hill region of the southern Biqa Valley, where it makes an abrupt turn to the west in southern Lebanon and is thereafter called the Al Qasmiyah River. The Orontes continues to flow north into Syria and eventually reaches the Mediterranean in Turkey. Its waters, for much of its course, flow through a channel considerably lower than the surface of the ground. The Nahr Barada, which waters Damascus, has as its source a spring in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Smaller springs and streams serve as tributaries to the principal rivers. Because the rivers and streams have such steep gradients and