Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above
website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed
sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above,
we pass this GPS location for Syria:
38.488106, -78.326845
Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
We found two communities that are also named Syria.
Within Virginia, the name Syria is unique.
Beyond Virginia, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Indiana
Orange County
This Syria is located in Orange County and lies 436 miles [701.7 km]<1> to the west of the Syria that is located in Madison County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Orange County community of Syria.
Kansas
Lincoln County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Syria [Lincoln County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Syria ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Syria to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Syria and extending to:
Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 81 miles [130.4 km]<1> to the southeast (SE). If you could drive a straight line from Syria to Richmond, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 75 miles [120.7 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,970 miles [9,607.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,676 miles [10,744 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,553 miles [7,327.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Syria) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Syria could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>
While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<5>
The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Syria to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Syria. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4881, Longitude: -78.3268
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.674 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.269 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.409 degrees.