Discover Aleppo   In History Discover it   Aleppo (Halab in Arabic), the large metropolis of northern Syria, claims to be the oldest inhabited city of the world. Around 1780 B.C. it was already the capital of the Great Kingdom of Yamhad Damascus also claims this title of the oldest of cities which has been continuously populated since its foundation. Thus the problem of rivalry between the two cities was set forth. The scale tipped for a long time in favour of Aleppo, with the exception, of course of the glorious century when Damascus was the capital of an immense empire. Since the sixties, destiny has settled in favour of Damascus in the demographic and economic fields. What made the fortune of Aleppo was its location at the crossing of the east-west axis of the Fertile Crescent near the point where the river Euphrates is nearest to the Mediterranean, and the north-south road between the desert and the range of mountains parallel to the coast. Its location is still important today if one considers the development of the Middle Euphrates valley and the Djezirah, or the recent construction of a railway between the port of Lattakia and Aleppo. This city flourished every time it was able to control (or at least not be separated from) the territories in Taurus in the north and high Mesopotamia in the east .   Previous - Next
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