Aleppo: The Rise and Fall of Syria's Great Merchant City

Every time gardens welcomed us, we said to them,
Aleppo is our aim and you are merely the route.'
Al-Mutanabbi

Aleppo lies in ruins. Its streets are plunged in darkness, most of its population has fled. But this was once a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse as Aleppo – one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world – successively ruled by the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ot...