Syria is topographically varied. Its western edges are mountainous. The Jabal al-Ansariya range, whose highest peaks reach elevations of 1500m, parallels the narrow Mediterranean coastal plain. To its south, the even loftier Anti-Lebanon Mountains, exceeding 2500m in places, straddle the boundary with Lebanon. The country’s highest point Mount Hermon (2814m) is in the south-west. Much of the rest of the country to the east of these mountains consists of a plateau which is generally 300 to 800 m above seal level. This is intersected by a line of low mountains between the Jaba Druze in the south-west and the Euphrates river in the north-east. The Mediterranean coast is humid, central and eastern Syria has summer temperatures reaching as high as 43 d c and reasonably cold winters with some frosts. Rainfall is fairly abundant in the west.
