1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Syria
Compare this sourced profile of Ar Raqqah, Syria before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Ar Raqqah—531,952, Asia/Damascus, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Ar Raqqah is GeoNames ID 172955. Its recorded administrative path is Raqqa → Syria, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Ar Raqqah occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Ar Raqqah ranks 1,061 by recorded population. Inside the 5 selected Syria entries it ranks 5; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 222. Its 531,952 population value is 0.69 times the 775,404 median for the country cohort and 0.59 times the 902,588 regional median. Ar Raqqah is rank 5 among the 5 selected Syria entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Ar Raqqah's recorded value is materially below the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Ar Raqqah's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Aleppo at 168.245 km with 2,098,210 recorded people; Gaziantep at 190.376 km with 2,222,415 recorded people; Diyarbakır at 243.08 km with 1,833,684 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 74.835 km. Compared with Aleppo, Ar Raqqah's recorded population is 0.25 times as large. Against Ar Raqqah, Aleppo follows Aleppo → Syria in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Syria cohort, uses the shared Asia/Damascus identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Ar Raqqah's. Against Ar Raqqah, Gaziantep follows Gaziantep → Türkiye in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Türkiye cohort rather than Syria, uses Europe/Istanbul instead of Asia/Damascus, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Ar Raqqah's. Against Ar Raqqah, Diyarbakır follows Diyarbakir Province → Türkiye in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Türkiye cohort rather than Syria, uses Europe/Istanbul instead of Asia/Damascus, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Ar Raqqah's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 923 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Ar Raqqah's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 172955, the coordinate pair 35.9528 / 39.0079, country rank 5 of 5, and neighbor GeoNames 170063 at 168.245 km bind Ar Raqqah to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Ar Raqqah's reference point is 35.9528° north and 39.0079° east. The IANA identifier Asia/Damascus is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Ar Raqqah's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Ar Raqqah's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Ar Raqqah's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Ar Raqqah, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Ar Raqqah's closest other entries in this atlas are Aleppo (168.245 km), Gaziantep (190.376 km), Diyarbakır (243.08 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Ar Raqqah, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.