Which country has Damascus as its capital city?

Damascus is the capital city of Syria.

Located in southwestern Syria near the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, Damascus is also the country’s largest city and a major cultural center of the Levant. The Barada River runs through the city, whose historic core contains landmarks such as the Umayyad Mosque.

Damascus has an exceptionally long history. It was an important settlement in the ancient Near East and later became the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 CE, when the city stood at the center of a vast Islamic empire. Its Old City preserves layers of Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, and Ottoman history.

A common mix-up is confusing Damascus with Aleppo, another major Syrian city. Aleppo lies farther north and has also played an enormous role in Syrian history, but it is not the national capital. Damascus is both Syria’s political capital and one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited urban centers.