Things to see and do Aleppo

The staff only have plans for the city and the region.

The last Aleppo soap factory delivers its secrets of manufacture, to be visited preferably between January and March, the period of manufacture of the soaps. The products developed here are exported to many large French surfaces!

Built on the location of the 1124 st century Cathedral of St. Helena, seized by the Muslim ruler of Aleppo in, in retaliation for atrocities committed by the «Franj» during the crusades. Just opposite the entrance, in the prayer room, note the capitals of Byzantine origin and the splendid wooden mihrab. Women must provide for a shawl, there are no available at the entrance.

In a tiny street devoted to the trade in wool (in a pelota), you will discover on your right the Syrian, Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, before arriving at the church of the forty-Martyrs, the oldest (th century) church. Enter the cloister and walk on the tombs of the Armenian martyrs massacred by the Turks in 1915, just below the impressive bell tower. The charm of the Syrian Catholic Church stems from its strange blend of pious images and oriental architecture, including the alternance of coloured stones in the choir.

This Arab residence dating back to 1757 was transformed into a museum of popular traditions. The interest of the place lies more in the building which welcomes it than the few old objects put into the scene by wax characters. A left-hand staircase from the entrance leads to the terrace from where the view takes the large courtyard with the very busy decoration and the grandiose iwan. A lemon stands in the middle of the courtyard. Beautiful gargoyles from the facade in the rococo style.

It was built in 1233 on order of the widow of the son of Saladin, Sultan Az-Zahir al-Ghazi, and daughter of the brother of Saladin al-Adil. Its mosque is organized around a small square courtyard bordered by porticos whose arches are based on wooden pieces on the columns of columns. An original device designed to defy earthquakes. The mihrab of the prayer room, located opposite the vast iwan of the courtyard, decorated with a splendid marble marquetry, is described by the Aleppins as the most «chauvinists of Syria's finest mihrab. If possible, it is better to get there at 12 p. m. The faithful carry out prayer inside, while a handful of merchants are active outside, with their carriages filled with vegetables or fruit. Placed at the exit of the mosque, they harvest the faithful barely the prayer completed. A quarter of an hour later, they disappear as fast as they ran. At the end of prayer, non-Muslims can enter and admire the interior of the building as well as the small dozen tombs of holy saints there.