Aleppo and the Citadel…

Swarms of yellow taxis dominate the traffic flow...!! No painted lines between lanes mean that it is a free-for-all... No place for the meek and mild...!!

View of the central square from the top floor of the Aleppo Palace Hotel....

While I enjoyed my breakfast from high up on the seventh floor of the hotel, I watched the city of Aleppo come alive beneath me…

Breakfast was the usual spread of cereals, followed by a variety of cheese and olives, a thin omelette rolled and cut into chunks, and a stew-like dish containing small pieces of mutton mixed with vegetables…

The manager came over to the window where I sat, to tell me that the flag pole out on the square below me was the largest in all of Syria, and stood almost 40 metres high…

I imagine that it take quite a breeze to get so big a flag unfurled, and in all the time I was in the city, I never once saw it spread out…

I arranged for a taxi to take me to the citadel in the centre of the city, and after being dropped off there, walked around the perimeter of this huge fortress…

Seen from street level, the citadel dominates the Aleppo skyline...

It stands almost 100 metres above the city, and is considered to be one of the oldest and largest castles in the world… Life on the hill can be traced back to almost 5 000 years ago, when the god of thunder, Hadad was worshipped from here…

Artists impression of this huge fortress... It contains Mosques, Palaces, an ancient army barracks, a market place, an amphitheatre, and many fortifications...

Aleppo was occupied by many civilizations over the centuries, including the Greeks, who took the city under the command of Alexander the Great… Fortification of the hill began during this period, until the Romans came along in 65 B.C., kicking up a ruckus, and laying waste to the city and its fort… The Romans would hold sway over Aleppo for the next 600 years, until Muslim troops captured it in 636 A.D.

Entrance to the Citadel is through this gate on the right, and over the walkway of seven arches...

Aleppo was ruled by the Babylonians and the Persians for a time, and the fortress in its present form was largely built by the son of Saladin around 1200 A.D., and during this period held back many assaults by the Crusaders…

The city was twice sacked by the Mongol invasions of 1290 and 1400 A.D., so has seen it’s fair share of trouble and strife…!!

The last conquerors of the Citadel were the Ottomans, and it was used primarily as a military fort from then on, the city below it having grown significantly during this period with inhabitants numbering over 100 000, which in those days must have been the equivalent of a major capital city of today…

The city lies sprawling into the distance on all sides of the Sacred Hill... Aleppo has a population of more than 3 million souls today...!!

Nature also took a turn at wrecking havoc… In 1822 a large earthquake all but destroyed the city…

The Citadel is surrounded by a deep moat, and only entry is through the fortified gateway and over a arched bridge…

There are many secret passageways that wind through the walls and connect the castle to the two massive Advance Towers that are built into the hill…Some of the tunnels are as deep as 125 metres underground and were used to connect the Citadel to the city…!!

Looking down on the South Advance Tower...

Archeologists are still finding the remains of these tunnels, as well as other artifacts and constructions dating back to when the Greeks ruled long before the birth of Christ…

Despite all of the history that goes with this remarkable site, I was left saddened and disappointed by what I found once I had crossed the stone bridge and walked out onto the plateau within the walls…

Litter was strewn about as if it had been dumped there by an army of litterbugs…!! In every nook and cranny, every walkway and passage; plastic bags and bottles, paper-wrappers and cola cans, and a variety of other rubbish, could be seen…!!

Litterbugs Rule...!! I was disgusted by the amount of litter that covered the site....!! This pile of rubbish lies at the foot of the spiral staircase that takes you to the highest viewing point in the complex...

I was astounded by this, and could hardly believe what I was seeing…!! I was the only Western tourist in the site, and I watched the many local Syrians, mostly the young and supposedly educated youth of the city, drop litter as they walked amongst the ruins…

It is hard to believe that not only do they seem to regard this behavior as quite normal and acceptable, but they also play music on their cell-phones at the maximum volume possible…!! There are two functioning Mosques within the fortress walls, and I would have thought that all Muslim visitors would have taken this into consideration…!! Clearly I was wrong…!!

In summing up, for me, the fortress was best viewed from the outside, down on the walkway that surrounds the hill… But don’t look over the wall into the moat… you will see piles of rubbish that have been thrown into it by the folk who do not seem to care much for their city, their heritage, or the environment…!!

I turned to take a last look at this magnificent and ancient site, best viewed from the outside... Huge pity...!!

I wonder when the authorities, will begin using the entrance fee monies to place dustbins over the vast site, and to employ people to clean up the mess that has allowed this beautiful and historic fortress to look like the aftermath of an explosion at a rubbish dump…??

To the citizens of Aleppo, I pose just one question: “Have you no pride in your heritage…??”

The taxi drive back to the hotel was farcical to say the least…!! I had a better idea of where we should be heading than the driver did…!! He stopped to ask half a dozen different people for directions, handing them the card on which the address of the hotel was clearly printed…

We got into a bit of an argument after 15 minutes of traveling in circles… Or rather, we spoke to each other in aggressive tones, but neither understood a word the other was saying, so perhaps “argument” is too strong a term…

I must learn to say, “Turn this cab around, you silly bugger…!!” in Arabic…!!

Carrot delivery on the streets of the city... Juice bars can be found on almost every corner, and carrots seem to form the base of almost every concoction...!!

Back at the hotel, he asked for more than double the usual fare, and seemed genuinely offended when, using the hotel doorman to interpret,  I told him to go buy a map of Aleppo, and gave him a fraction of what he had asked for…!!

On a walk through the dark narrow streets of Aleppo later that evening, I stopped at a hole in the wall restaurant and tried the local “Sandwich”, which is a meat and vegetable mixture, rolled into a pancake, and warmed on a hot metal plate… The three brothers that owned and operated the joint, were very interested in me, probably because I was the only tourist in this part of the city… I had not seen another Westerner since arriving at the hotel…!!

The three brothers who own this Sandwich stall were very friendly and helpful...

Scoffing my "Syrian Sandwich"...

Washed down with a pair of the usual suspects...!!

The youngest one in the foreground of the picture was studying Law in a Beirut University, and gave me the rundown of that city… I would be heading there after my sortie into the desert of central Syria, so all the info he provided come in very handy indeed…!!

After telling them how much I was enjoying the first chicken “sandwich” of this type that I had ever had, they insisted that I try a mutton one, and gave this one to me on the house…!!

I sat on a stool that they dragged out from under another younger guy in the restaurant, forcing him to stand while he finished his meal…!! He gave me a broad smile when he left a few minutes later, so there seemed to be no hard feeling there…!!

I walked back to my hotel through the dark streets, feeling completely safe as I did so… The city was still bustling with pedestrians at the late hour of 11.00 pm, and noise from the streets carried up to my room long after midnight…

I had got over my disappointment at the condition I had found the Citadel in, and was beginning to get the hang of being back in a Muslim country, knowing when to show respect, and when to chance my arm with a witty comment or two…

I was dead keen to get out of the busy city and into the desert, where people, and hopefully litter, would be considerably scarcer…

©GBWT 2010