Syria vs Lebanon

Why people mix them up

Syria and Lebanon are neighbours on the eastern Mediterranean, both Arabic-speaking and both governed under a French mandate after the First World War. They share a long border, much history and many family and cultural ties, and Lebanon is so small that on a world map it can look like a coastal corner of Syria. People often ask whether Lebanon was once part of Syria and how big each country is.

How to tell them apart

• Lebanon is tiny, about 10,450 km², while Syria is roughly 18 times larger.
• Lebanon's flag is red-white-red horizontal with a green cedar tree in the centre; Syria's flag is a horizontal tricolour with stars on the middle band.
• The capitals are Beirut (Lebanon), on the coast, and Damascus (Syria), inland, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
• Lebanon is mountainous, with two parallel ranges and the Beqaa Valley between them; much of Syria is plains and desert, crossed by the Euphrates.
• Syria borders Turkey and Iraq; Lebanon borders only Syria and Israel.
• The currencies are the Lebanese pound and the Syrian pound.

Memory hook

Lebanon is the Little Lebanon with the cedar on its flag, a narrow strip of mountains along the sea. Syria is the big country wrapped around it to the north and east.

On the map

Find the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Lebanon is the small, narrow country along the coast, just north of Israel. Syria wraps around Lebanon on the north and east and extends far inland to Iraq, with a short coastline of its own north of Lebanon and a long border with Turkey. If the country you are tapping touches Turkey or Iraq, it is Syria.