Weather in Damascus

Discuss about weather in Damascus for certain time.

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Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشق‎ Dimashq), commonly known in Syria as Al Sham (Arabic: الشام‎ Al Shām), and as the City of Jasmine (Arabic: مدينة الياسمين‎ Madīnatu 'i Yāsmīn), is the capital and the largest city of Syria and one of the country's 14 governorates. The Damascus Governorate is ruled by a governor appointed by the Minister of Interior. Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant. The city has an estimated population of 4,211,000 (2009 est.).[1]

Located in southwestern Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 6 million people (2009).[3] Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate due to the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. Damascus was chosen as the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture.[4]

The name of Damascus first appeared in the geographical list of Thutmose III as T-m-ś-q in the 15th century BC.[5] In Arabic, the city is called دمشق الشام (Dimashq al-Shām), although this is often shortened to either Dimashq or al-Shām by the citizens of Damascus, of Syria and other Arab neighbors. Al-Shām is an Arabic term for north and for Syria (Syria—particularly historical Greater Syria—is called Bilād al-Shām—بلاد الشام, "land of the north"—in Arabic.) The etymology of the ancient name "T-m-ś-q" is uncertain, but it is suspected to be pre-Semitic. It is attested as