Syria Aleppo (Haleb)

November 12th.


We have been in Aleppo a day now. We crossed the border yesterday. The journey from Goreme took slightly longer than we anticipated: it was supposed to take twelve hours, but it ended up taking nigh on twenty-one. Suffice to say we were a little knackered by the time arrived. The border crossing was pretty smooth, if not a little mundane. We got chatting to some people on the bus, one guy was from Hamas and have never practised speaking English before to anyone. He was very excited that we could understand what he was saying. We had an interesting chat, which mainly involved lots of jocular gesticulation. He also bought us some Syrian coffee, which was like snorting a line of Nescafe. I don't think I slept properly for the next three days. We got ripped on the tickets we bought and instead of getting a direct bus to Aleppo we ended up being dumped in some border town and being charged extra for the final leg. We also got chatting to a really lovely woman called Rachel. She is working as a volunteer on a project in Damascus. She has decided to spend a couple of days exploring Aleppo with us.


Aleppo is a fantastic city. I love the Middle East and I love Arabic countries and culture. Predominately because it is so far removed from my own. It is so exotic and different. Everything is so busy and vibrant on the city's streets: Cars race everywhere. Taxis, trucks, and Services (minibus taxis) chase around motorbikes and carts beeping furiously. Cyclists dart in and out of the mayhem on the roads. Entire families ride by on motorbikes. Pedestrians wander through all of this carrying trays of tea and food, and selling wares. It is mesmorising mayhem.


Aleppo - known as Haleb in Arabic - vies with Damascus for being one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Whilst Damascus was the holy city, a beautiful oasis in the desert; Aleppo was a place of commerce. Trade always encourages settlements and there are records of civilisation existing here as far back as the 18th century BC. Unfortunately the Hittite Empire's invasion into northern Syria threw this cities history into obscurity from the 16-17th Century BC. We know it was known during the reign of Alexander the great, and afterward, as Beroia. The Byzantines and Romans used this city as a trade route, and it later played a cruxical role in the Crusade wars when those lovely, berserker, maniacs ransacked most of the Middle East on what I can only see as the worst case of Brits/French/Spanish/Italians etc... etc.. abroad in known history. It remained, albeit slightly more fortified, a flourishing and vibrant city of trade for the next 800 years. Many European traders established themselves here during the 17th century, however trade fell into decline with the advent of the industrial revolution as alternative trade routes developed and production methods changed. It still has one of the most magnificent Souqs in the Middle-East. This certainly one of the most fascinating sites to visit - and it is still fully functional and regularly used by the denizens of Aleppo.