Syria Facts

Nearly all pet golden hamsters in the world are descended from a single litter captured in Syria in 1930—a mother and her pups dug up by a zoologist near Aleppo.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is drilled over 100 metres into an Arctic mountain in Norway, keeping more than 1.3 million seed samples frozen - even if the power fails, the permafrost keeps them safe. Syria's conflict made the Aleppo seed bank inaccessible - and researchers made the first-ever withdrawal to rebuild it.