Syrian Travels

Last week we returned from a trip to Syria, spending several nights in both Aleppo and Damascus. Damascus is about four hours from Amman, and Aleppo about five hours north of Damascus. We had been to Syria before, but this time we tried more purposefully to think about what it might be like to live there and what we might do if we moved there after language school. Here are some pictures from the Aleppo portion of our trip.

Inside the market--souq--of Aleppo. With a population of around 4 million, the city is Syria's second largest, and is one of the oldest inhabited cities on earth, with settlement in the area dating back at least 4000 years. Parts of the souq area--which is surrounded by walls inside the old city--date back to the 13th century.

Another part of the souq.

Inside the souq, Matt with the remains of a camel carcass.

Throughout the souq there are specific areas for buying such products as meat, textiles and spices. This is a spice pyramid in the spice souq.

Aleppo is famous for their soap, with soaps made from olive oil, honey, cinnamon and almond oil, for example. This is just a sampling of the different varieties that can be found in the souq.

This boy had just finished taking a picture of Matt with his mobile phone. Matt had several pictures taken of him on the trip.

The Great Mosque, just outside the city walls of old Aleppo. It was built in the early 8th century.

Right at the entrance to the old city was a video/DVD store, which played a locally produced movie of the Battle of Fallujah from the war in Iraq every day, and nearly all day. There was always a crowd of people watching--usually more than what is shown here--with great interest.

A cherry vendor on the busy street just outside the old city walls.

The entrance to the citadel, which is a fortified structure built on a man-made hill overlooking the city. It was built in the 10th century, and renovated in the 12th and 13th centuries.