street scenes, Aleppo

The Old City is a bewildering maze of narrow, twisting lanes and alleys - dusty, crumbling but generally reasonably clean. Apart from the obvious places like the souq, the Citadel, the hammams, madrassa and mosques, etc, there is much to interest the inquisitive aimless wanderer. Wonderful studded and carved doors leading where? Massive door knockers and dainty Hands of Fatima, carved lintels, latticed balconies, metal workshops with glowing braziers in their depths, minarets of every shape and height, a tiny cemetery on a little hill, a small square filled with fruit and vegetable barrows, one of the gates a remnant of the city walls. All this and much more, enough to keep you exploring as long as your feet hold out. A taxi back to your hotel will only cost you a dollar or so.

Every city in the Ottoman Empire seems to have been gifted with a clock tower in the early 20th century. Aleppo was no exception. Its clock tower was designed in Ottoman-Baroque style, typical of the late 19th/early 20th century. It is located just outside the old city limits at Bab al-Faraj area. Seen in the attached photo is the clock tower, with the recently opened Sheraton Hotel in the background.

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Aleppo's population growth in the past century has necessitated rapid expansion beyond its traditional boundaries. The modern city of Aleppo sprawls as far as the horizon and is home to approximately 3 million people. Apart from driving through the modern city, I saw very little of it. However, it was enough to notice that it suffered from the same problems that plague other rapidly expanding developing-world cities, such as pollution, congestion and overcrowding.

Bab Antakya is the western gate in the old city wall. It was constructed by the Ayubbids in the 13th century and at that time some blocks were used from the Roman triumphal arch that stood here before. In the 15th century the gate was restored and modified.

Today there are lots of workshops around it. To your left, after you have entered the gate, there are stairs leading up to the wall, from where you can watch the busy street and micro bus station below. If you from Bab Antakya follow the narrow street straight through the souq, for about 1,5 km, you will end up by the citadel.

Coming out from the mosque, walked towards the roundabout. It was not a busy street scene but taxis (yellow cars in the photo) were almost everywhere.
This was the place where I had to find a phone booth to call the guy that I was meeting.

After resting for a few hours at the hotel, I started to explore Aleppo. These photos were taken as I traced my walk to Aleppo Citadel, capturing the street scenes, going through The Souqs etc.
First, going in an old mosque (there are many around Aleppo) & seeing the sights around the compound.

Approaching the outskirts of Aleppo, particularly from the north-west, you cannot help but notice the enormous amount of new building going on. There's block after block of new apartments, some looking very extravagant with acres of elaborate stone and marble. New mosques sprout minarets everywhere - some are elegantly restrained while others look like something out of a Disney fantasy. New roads lead off in all directions.

This explosion of building is not surprising when you know that in just four years from 1992 to 1996 the population of Aleppo doubled, but why and how so much of it appears to be so opulent is more of a mystery.
What is a certainty however, is that with more than 50% of the population under the age of 19, the building boom is going to last for some time yet.

I remember this day......Fouad had dropped me off in the shopping district for me to get familiar with the stores and shopping areas....I remember this well because i just remember so many stores, streets and streets of stores. It had just stopped raining at this time and I remember it was hard to carry my umbrella and the packages! I borrowed the umbrella from the hotel.