Aleppo Syria

Syria..

The immense strategic importance of Syria is due to her unique position as a meeting-point of three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe.  Through Syria lay the Silk Road which led from China to Doura Europos, from Palmyra and Homs to the Syrian ports on the Mediterranean, the trade route for caravans.  Did you know that many of the Roman Emperors were themselves Syrian!

Damascus, the worlds most ancient inhabited city is somewhere where we would have liked to explore,  but believe it or not just because we are out for a year its not long enough to see everything,  so onto Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria.

Aleppo dominated the trade routes connecting East and West, today this second largest Syrian city still plays a key economic role.  Although the people of Syria carry a huge cultural heritage, they have not become completely engrossed in their past.  They realize that heritage is not an end in itself, but rather a guiding light to a brighter future and an added impetus to transform Syria into a modern nation firmly grounded in the twenty first Century. 

We went to the Citadel while we were there,  it sits 50m above the city of Aleppo, surrounded by a moat, 20m deep and 30m wide, however today it dosnt carry any water.  Not only is its size very impressive but also how very different its architecture is from what we have seen so far in the Middle East, a little sad to see the amount of garbage laying around its walls but hopefully they will get that dealt with!