Asia/Damascus time zone
4:42PMUTC+3
UTC+3UTC+3+8 h vs New York (you)
No transitions: Asia/Damascus stays on UTC+3.
About Asia/Damascus
Asia/Damascus is the IANA time zone for Syria. It currently keeps UTC+3 all year.
Its principal location is Damascus at 33.50° N, 36.30° E.
Rule for future years (POSIX TZ string)
<+03>-3
The standard time is called “+03” (a numeric abbreviation) and is UTC+3. POSIX writes the offset with the opposite sign (west of Greenwich is positive), which is why the string says "-3". There is no daylight saving rule: the zone stays on this offset for every year after the end of its explicit transitions. Software that has no full tzdata copy, such as many embedded devices, can use this string directly as the TZ environment variable.
History of Asia/Damascus since 1970
The record starts with local mean time (UTC+2:25), which ended on December 31, 1919. The first daylight saving time in the record is in 1920.
| Years | Clocks | Abbreviations |
|---|---|---|
| 1970–1978 | UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer | EET, EEST |
| 1979–1982 | UTC+2 all year | EET |
| 1983–1984 | UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer | EET, EEST |
| 1985 | UTC+2 all year | EET |
| 1986–2021 | UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer | EET, EEST |
| 2022 | UTC+2 until March 25, then UTC+3 | EET, EEST |
| 2023 onward | UTC+3 all year | — |
Before 1970
25 offset changes before 1970 in the record; the first 12 and the last 12:
- Wednesday, December 31, 1919: UTC+2:25 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 18, 1920: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Sunday, October 3, 1920: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 17, 1921: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Sunday, October 2, 1921: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 16, 1922: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Sunday, October 1, 1922: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 15, 1923: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Sunday, October 7, 1923: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 29, 1962: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Monday, October 1, 1962: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Wednesday, May 1, 1963: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Friday, May 1, 1964: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Thursday, October 1, 1964: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Saturday, May 1, 1965: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Thursday, September 30, 1965: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Sunday, April 24, 1966: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Saturday, October 1, 1966: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Monday, May 1, 1967: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Sunday, October 1, 1967: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Wednesday, May 1, 1968: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Tuesday, October 1, 1968: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
- Thursday, May 1, 1969: UTC+2 → UTC+3 (EEST), daylight saving time
- Wednesday, October 1, 1969: UTC+3 → UTC+2 (EET)
Changes of the winter (standard) offset: Friday, March 25, 2022, UTC+2 → UTC+3.
tzdata commits to accuracy from 1970 for every zone (zone1970.tab); earlier entries are historical research and may be incomplete.
Aliases and zones with the same clock
Other zones that keep exactly the same time under the current rules (but have a different history): Africa/Nairobi, Asia/Amman, Asia/Baghdad, Asia/Qatar, Asia/Riyadh, Europe/Istanbul, Europe/Kirov, Europe/Minsk, Europe/Moscow, Europe/Simferopol, Europe/Volgograd.
Places on Asia/Damascus
Convert Damascus time
Using Asia/Damascus in code
Every major platform reads the same IANA ID. Store instants in UTC and convert with the ID at display time; never store a fixed offset for a place that has daylight saving time.
// JavaScript
new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { timeZone: 'Asia/Damascus' })
# Python 3.9+
from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
from datetime import datetime
datetime.now(ZoneInfo('Asia/Damascus'))
// Java
java.time.ZonedDateTime.now(java.time.ZoneId.of("Asia/Damascus"))
// Go
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("Asia/Damascus")
time.Now().In(loc)
-- PostgreSQL
SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Asia/Damascus';
# Shell
TZ='Asia/Damascus' datePlatforms ship their own copy of tzdata and update it on their own schedule. After a rule change, outputs can differ until the platform updates; this page uses tzdata 2026f.