After Istanbul and Cairo, it was, from the 16th to the 18th centuries the third economic center of the Ottoman
Empire. Early in the 17th century its trade reputation was already considerable enough to attract the attention,
albeit fleetingly, of an English writer who was not an economist: Shakespeare. Its ancient history (already mentioned),
its role during the Crusades when it was the unyielding rock of Islamic resistance against the attacks of the Franks
(when it was the capital of many emirates) and its prosperity under the Mamelukes of Egypt and more particularly
under the Ottomans give an idea of its tourist interest.
You will not be disappointed, as the archaeological museum, the citadel (an extraordinary specimen of Arab fortifications
of the Middle Ages) and the many monuments, mosques, madrassas (schools of Koranic theology), baths,caravanserais,
and souks, fulfill every promise of such a prestigious past.
This city of about one million inhabitants, at 320 m. in a depression strewed with protruding rocks and extending
from the Orontes to the Euphrates, has a stem character that it owes to the dull color of its stones. It is therefore
no wonder that it is called in Arabic Ash-Shahba, the Greyish. It is also true that the dry condition of the surrounding
countryside does not bestow on it a joyful appearance. There is however, some greenery and the groves of pistachio
trees will not go unnoticed. |
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