The Magnificent City
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Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited- cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since ALEPPO the sixth millennium BC. Aleppo, Arabic Halab, Turkish Halep, principal city of northern Syria. It is situated in the northwestern part The Magnificent of the country, about 30 miles (50 km) south of the Turkish border. Aleppo is located at the crossroads of great commercial routes and lies some 60 miles (100 km) from both the Mediterranean Sea (west) City and the Euphrates River (east). Index History 3 Aleppo 4 Gallery /Audio 5 Interactive/Video 6 Five Places Must Visit 7 Author 8 2 Back To Index The city was absorbed into the Roman History Of Aleppo province of Syria in the 1st century BCE. Jewish settlement in the area is likely to have begun during this period, and a Christian Aleppo has great historical importance, as community was also established. Beroea many kingdoms and empires succeeded prospered as a hub for caravan traffic under it. Several ancient and modern civilizations Byzantine rule but was pillaged and burned succeeded in the city, each of them left an by the Persian Sasanian king Khosrow I in 540 architectural impact in the city, which CE. made it among the most importsnt haritage cities. In 1516 the city was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, and it was soon made the The exact age of Aleppo is unknown, capital of a province comprising northern although it is thought to be among the Syria and parts of southern Anatolia. The world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. commercial revival continued, spurring the The first settlers are believed to have built rebuilding and expansion of Aleppo’s souk homes on the hill at the center of the (market) and the construction of new khans modern city, taking advantage of the area’s (rest houses for traveling merchants). The natural defensive advantages, fertile city’s main imports included Persian silk and agricultural land, and proximity to Indian pepper. In the 16th and 17th a water source, the Quwayq River. centuries Aleppo was the third largest city in the Ottoman Empire, after Constantinople Halap is first mentioned in the archives of the (now Istanbul) and Cairo, and hosted ancient city of Ebla at the end of the 3rd Venetian, British, Dutch, and French millennium BCE as the site of an important consulates and trading offices. The temple dedicated to the Near Eastern storm presence of a large European merchant god Hadad. In the late 20th century community was especially profitable for archaeologists discovered the buried remains Christians in Aleppo, who often served as of this temple at the site of Aleppo’s commercial agents and translators. medieval citadel, atop the hill at the city’s centre. The oldest parts of the temple date historical records concerning Halab during to the 3rd millennium BCE, and the building the periods of Assyrian and Achaemenian was renovated several times over the rule suggests that the city had declined in succeeding millennia. The thickness of its importance. In the early 3rd century BCE ruined walls indicates that the temple was a the city fell into the hands of the Seleucids, tall tower that would have been visible for who founded a Macedonian colony on the long distances. site and named it Beroea, after the ancient Macedonian city that may have been the In the 18th century BCE Halab was the original home of many of the arriving capital of the Amorite kingdom of Yamkhad. settlers. It became an important city of the It subsequently came under Hittite, Egyptian, Hellenistic period and a great commercial Mitannian, and again Hittite rule during the entrepôt between the Mediterranean 17th to the 14th century. region and the lands farther east. 3 Back To Index Aleppo’s most visible landmark is the Aleppo remains a centre of traditional Arab medieval cita-del, which sits on a partly poetry, music, cuisine, and handicrafts. It is Aleppo in Mid 20th man-made hill at the cen-tre of the city also an intel-lectual centre, with Aleppo The rise in the mid-20th century of a new about 130 feet (40 metres) high. The old University (1960), an institute of music, and political structure dominated by Alawite (Shii section of the city, which extends outward several madrasahs. The city’s minority sect) military officers at the expense from the base of the hill, covers archaeological museum displays ancient of the traditional Sunni urban elite led approximately 1.5 square miles (4 square artifacts found in northern Syria at several occasionally to outbreaks of violence. In km). To the west of the citadel is one of the major archaeolog-ical sites. largest and best-preserved covered bazaars 1979 a simmering insurgency against the The old city of Aleppo was designated a in the Middle East, which extends for miles regime of Pres. Hafez al-Assad took a brutal UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986. through narrow streets. Vendors are turn when militants massacred Aleppo’s citadel is considered one of the grouped by trade within the bazaar, approximately 50 cadets, most of them most striking examples of medieval Islamic forming specialized alleys for merchan-dise, Alawites, at a military academy in Aleppo. architecture preserved into the 21st century. including clothing, textiles, leather, soap, The government responded with a massive Another point of interest is the Great, or and spices. The numerous khans, mosques, military deployment to Aleppo in 1980, and Zakariyyah, Mosque (built 715 CE, rebuilt and mer-chant houses are built of limestone, several hundred people were killed by 1285), which is named for Zacharias, the and many of them date to the 16th and special forces hunting militants in the city. father of John the Baptist. Parts of the city’s 17th centuries CE. Tradi-tional residential Aleppo initially remained quiet when old stone walls, along with several of their areas in the old city feature tightly packed demonstrations broke out against the gates, are still intact. During the Syrian Civil courtyard houses connected by networks of regime of Pres. Fighting continued until Dec War the old city, including the citadel and high-walled alleys. 2016, when opposition fighters surrendered the Great Mosque, suffered extensive the city to Syrian forces in exchange for their Aleppo’s main industries are silk weaving, damage. Efforts to restore the structures safe passage out of the city. Aleppo cotton printing, the manufacture of soaps began after the city was recaptured by the suffered far more destruction than any other and dyes, and the preparation of hides, Syrian government. city during the civil war, amounting to more wool, dried fruit, and nuts. The city is a than $7.5 billion worth of dam-age—most of market center for the surrounding it housing. agricultural area. The Contemporary City Aleppo sits on a plateau at an elevation of approximately 1,300 feet (400 metres). The area is one of the most fertile in Syria, with wheat fields and orchards covering the plain south of the city. The Quwayq River runs through the city, although it has at times run dry in Aleppo partly because of heavy water use in Turkey, where it originates. Aleppo has a hot semiarid climate with long summers and short rainy winters. Back To Index Gallery/Audio 5 Back To Index A short video about the citidal of Aleppo Ancient City of Aleppo (UNESCO/NHK) 6 Back To Index Umayyad Mosque Armenian Forty Martyrs Cathedral Five Places in The largest and one of the oldest mosques Forty Martyrs Cathedral is a 15th-century in the city, The mosque is purportedly home Armenian Apostolic church located in the to the remains of Zechariah, the father of old Christian quar-ter of Jdeydeh. It is Aleppo Must Visit John the Baptist. It was built in the begin- significant among the Armenian churches ning of the 8th century CE, and was once for being one of the oldest active church-es The Citadel of Aleppo the ago-ra of the Hellenistic period, which in the Armenian diaspora and the city of It is one of the oldest buildings on Earth. It has later became the garden for the Cathedral Aleppo. It is a three-nave basilica church a lot of rooms and bathrooms, also it has a of Saint Helena during the Christian era of with no dome. Its bell tower of 1912, is small mosque and a market for trade. The Roman rule in Syria. considered to be one of the unique samples castle was restored several times, most of the baroque architecture in Aleppo recently during the Ottoman era, and the castle is still standing in the center of Aleppo Al Madina Souq The covered souq-market located at the heart of the Syrian city of Aleppo within the walled ancient part of the city. With its long Al-Shuna Market and narrow alleys, Al-Madina Souq is the Khan AL-Shouna The market adjacent to largest covered historic mar-ket in the the Cit-adel of Aleppo is one of the oldest world, with an approximate length of 13 markets in the city, and people today kilometers. practice a number of hand-icrafts that have been working in them for thou-sands of years, from handcrafted silk and copper scarves, to traditional jewelry. Back To Index The Author: I was born and raised in this ancient city with an ancient history. I have memories in every street and in every market. It is a great city despite its so old, authentic despite its fatigue, and strong despite the emigration of its people after the war.