An ancient trading city beneath a great citadel
Aleppo sat at the end of the Silk Road and has been inhabited for thousands of years. Its heart is the Citadel, a vast medieval fortress on a mound above the old city, entered by a monumental bridge and gateway. Below it stretched one of the largest covered markets in the Middle East, along with mosques, madrasas and caravanserais. The city is known across the region for its cooking, especially kibbeh and kebabs with sour cherries, and for Aleppo soap made with laurel oil.