Syria (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠‎ Sura/i; Greek: Συρία; Classical Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ) or Sham (Arabic: ٱلشَّام, romanized: Ash-Shām) is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other synonyms are Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine.

Al-Sham or Shām (شام), is the Arabic term for the Greater Syria region, that is called in English the Levant or the eastern Mediterranean, including the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and Turkey's Hatay Province. Bilad al-Sham, the Caliphate province of the same region.

Bilad al-Sham comprised the area of Greater Syria, spanning the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, as well as the regions of Hatay, Gaziantep, and Diyarbakir in modern Turkey. It was bound by the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Syrian Desert in the east toward Iraq.

The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region, broadly synonymous with the Levant, and known in Arabic as al-Sham.