Aleppo

Aleppo (Halab) is a city and province in northern Syria. The city has a population of around 1.7 million (1999), making it the second largest city in the country after Damascus. It is one of the oldest cities in the region, known to antiquity as Khalpe and to the Greeks as Beroea, and occupies a strategic trading point midway between the sea and the Euphrates; initially, it was built on a small group of hills in a wide fertile valley on both sides of the river Quweiq[?]. The province or governate extends around the city for over 16,000 km² and has around 3.7 million inhabitants.

There is a relatively clear division between old and new Aleppo. The older portions were contained within a wall, 3 miles in circuit with seven gates. The medieval castle in the city is built atop a huge partially artificial mound rising 50 m above the city, the current structure dates from the 13th century and had been extensively damaged by earthquakes, notably in 1822. The city has many mosques including the Madrasa Halawiya, built on the site of a church ascribed to Saint Helena, mother of Constantine the Great and containing a tomb reputed to be that of John the Baptist's father, and the Al-Jami al-Kabir (Great Mosque) which was built by the Umayyads, although the present structure largely dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. As an ancient trading centre it also has impressive souqs and commercial khans. The city was significantly redesigned after WW II, in 1952 the French architect Andre Gutton[?] had a number of wide new roads cut through the city to allow modern traffic easier passage. In the 1970s, large parts of the older city were demolished to allow for the construction of modern flat blocks.

The main role of the city was as a trading place, it sat at the meeting point of four trade routes and mediated the trade from India, the Tigris and Euphrates regions and from the south. Although trade was often directed away from the city for political reasons, it continued to thrive until the Europeans began to use the Cape route to India and later to utilise the route through Egypt to the Red Sea. Since then the city has declined and its chief exports now are the agricultural product of the surrounding region, mainly wheat and cotton.

The site has been occupied from around 1800 BCE, as recorded in the Hittite records. It grew as the capital of the kingdom of Yamkhad until the ruling Amorite[?] dynasty was overthrown around 1600 BCE, the city remained under Hittite control until maybe 800 BCE before passing through the hands of the Assyrians and the Persian Empire before being captured by the Greeks in 333 BCE, when Seleucus Nicator[?] renamed the settlement Beroea. The city remained in Greek or Seleucid hands until 64 BCE when Syria was conquered by the Romans. The city became part of the Byzantine Empire before falling into Arabic hands from 637 until the 10th century when a resurgent Byzantine Empire briefly regained control from 974 to 987. The city was twice besieged by Crusaders, in 1098 and in 1124 but was not conquered. It came under the control of Saladin and then the Ayyubid[?] dynasty from 1183 and remained in Arab hands until it was taken by the Mongols in 1260, returning to Arab hands in 1317 before it became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, when the city had around 50,000 inhabitants. The city remained part of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse but it was still occasionally riven with internal feuds as well as attacks of the plague and later cholera from 1823. By 1901 its population was around 125,000. The city was revived when it came under French colonial rule but slumped again following the decision to give Antioch to Turkey in 1938-1939.