Travel in Aleppo - Syria - History - WorldTravelGate.net®-

The second largest city of Syria, Aleppo, lays claim to being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. In the centre of Aleppo is the magnificent Aleppo Citadel, considered to be the oldest in the world, the Great Mosque, and the Aleppo souk, which is the longest covered souk in the world. There are over 200 'Dead Cities' within a radius of 60km around Aleppo, some of which date back to the first century AD.

Aleppo, going back to the early 2^nd millennium BC, competes with Damascus on being the oldest inhabited city in the world. It appeared in the Hittite archives in central Anatolia and in the archives of Mari on the Euphrates. Aleppo (Halab) was the capital of the Amorite kingdom of Yamkhad, in the middle centuries of that millennium. It was the focus of the Hittites in their overthrow of the Amorite Dynasty, in 1595 BC. In about 1000 BC, Northern Syria was taken over by the Sea Peoples; however Aleppo remained a small Neo-Hittite state. From 800 BC to 400 BC, the Assyrians followed by the Persians were in control of Syria.

In 333 BC, it was taken over by Alexander the Great, and was kept under the Greeks for 300 years in the form of the Seleucid Empire. During this time Aleppo was an important trading city, between the Euphrates and Antioch.

In 64 BC Pompey brought Syria under Roman domination. It remained under Roman control in the form of the Byzantine Empire until 637AD, when the Arabs took over.

In the 10^th century the city was taken over by the Hamdanids who made it virtually independent until 962 AD when it was retaken by the Byzantine Empire. In 1098, it was circled by soldiers from the First Crusade who could not conquer it, but paralyzed its commercial power. It was besieged again in 1124 by another Crusade, and then taken over by Zengi and his successor Nur al Din.

During World War I, its trade rose with the arrival of Armenian refugees, who fled the Ottoman massacres. But after France had given Antioch to Turkey, Aleppo lost its Mediterranean outlet.

Approximately 50 years ago, Aleppo began however increasingly to decline. Richer and formed inhabitants the old part of town rather settled at the outskirts. To beginning of the 80's years, it increased with engaged citizens the worry by the historic monument. Also the administration looked for ways to rescue the old part of town.