Aleppo, Syria

Early May 2002

Aleppo was our first stop in Syria after several hours travelling along a beautiful kept clean highway lined with 'Boycott American Goods' posters from Turkey.  Couldn't believe how clean the sides of the roads were or how green it was.  Certainly a big contrast to Turkey. 

Aleppo is Syria's second biggest city and has fantastic covered souqs and an amazing citadel.

The Citadel

The Citadel dates from the 12 century or possibly earlier and stands upon a huge man made mound. had a good time talking to some university students who wanted to marry me off to one of their friends.  She was quite cute despite needing several thousand pounds of quality dental work.

Entrance to the Citadel.

View of Aleppo from the Citadel.

Great Mosque

Miranda at the Grand Mosque where they keep the head of Zacharias, John The Baptist's father.  Unfortunate how both father and son lost both their heads.  At the time of our visit, the place was being restored and you couldn't see much.  We weren't actually meant to be in there but the locals told us we could bribe the caretaker and get in ... so we did.

Me.

Insane Asylum

A fountain inside the Insane Asylum.  The water fountain was used to drown out the screams of the inmates who had cells on each side of the fountain as well as serving as a light well.

Headless pigeon in the courtyard of the insane asylum.

In The Souqs

Aleppo has the most amazing and chaotic covered street souqs.  It teams with life and is reason alone to go to Aleppo.

Me dressed up as Lawrence of Arabia.  Still kicking myself that I didn't buy the white and gold galabeyya/jalabiyya  to go with the kufeyya headress.

Should definitely have bought this!

Around Town

Wasn't expecting to see a poster with semi naked girls advertising western movies or something.

Closeup

From our hotel, we saw a whole lot of Russian looking women hanging out at the top of their building and moving through the room downstairs.  Given it wasn't a hotel, odds on it was a brothel.  An Austrian peacekeeper said there was a lot of Russian prostitutes in town.

Prostitutes

A Valiant in the street - a minor icon in Australian automotive history.

Pigeon and chips.  Can't say it was the best meal I ever had.

Pictures of Syria's youthful president, Bashar Assad.  He took over from his father after he died.  He wasn't expecting to succeed his father but his elder brother died in a car crash and he was recalled from London where he studying to be an eye surgeon to succeed his father.  Syrians have great expectations of of greater freedoms and economic given his western education. 

By the way, posters of Bashar and his father are everywhere in Syria.  It's the same for Mustafa Kemal  in Turkey and King Abdullah in Jordan.

Next:

Syria, 1. Aleppo, 2. Hama, 3. Palmyra, 4. Krak des Chevaliers, 5. Damascus