Why do Syrians call Damascus “ash-Sham” (الشام)?

Maps say دمشق (Damascus), but Syrians themselves say الشام — as the speaker puts it in the clip, “دمشق يلي نحن بالسوري منسميها الشام” (“Damascus, which we in Syrian call ash-Shām”). The word does double duty: within Syria it means the capital, but historically بلاد الشام is the whole Levant — Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. Context tells you which one a speaker means.

The adjective شامي inherits both senses: a شامي person is a Damascene, but اللهجة الشامية usually means Levantine Arabic broadly, and مأكولات شامية on a menu promises Levantine food. Egyptians historically used الشام for the region, which is why Egyptian has the phrase “يا مسافر وحدك” era songs about going للشام. In the clip she also contrasts climates: hot summers, rainy winters, ما في عندنا ثلج — “we don’t get snow.”