Damascus

Syria

Damascus is the capital and largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital city in the world. Known colloquially in Syria as aš-Šām and dubbed, poetically, the "City of Jasmine", Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world.

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Country: Syria
Population: 2,466,000
Latitude: 33.5° N
Longitude: 36.3° E

Which way is Damascus from…

From Paris, Damascus lies at 109° to the east, 3,275 km as the crow flies.

Paris	109° east	3,275 km
London	110° east	3,539 km
New York	52° north-east	9,108 km
Madrid	89° east	3,604 km
Rome	106° east	2,283 km
Montreal	53° north-east	8,757 km
Saint-Denis, Réunion	341° north	6,379 km

Bearings as the crow flies (great circle), measured from north. From somewhere else, the bearing changes: that’s the whole game.

Oùcécap’s take

Damascus lies just 84 km south-east of Beirut, and from London you aim east, at 110°, for 3,539 km. It sits on the same latitude as Rabat and Islamabad. From New York, a flat map would say 95°, east, but the compass reads 52°, north-east: the shortest route crosses Newfoundland, England and then Turkey.