It was crossed by the most important trade routes, between Europe, China (Silk Road) and India. Syria was successively occupied by the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, the Arameans, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Romans, the Nabataeans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, partially by the Crusaders, by the Ottoman Turks and finally by the French TP of 2011 which you can find on the zouave zebré blog