We drove off to Aleppo with some friends this weekend to see the softer side of Syria. A four-hour drive past the brief shadows of the anti-Lebanon mountains, fields of bleached wheat, rocky hillsides patterned in soft swirls. We arrive in the city with shaky legs as the afternoon sun begins to set. I have never seen such a high concentration of awful drivers and blatant lack of shoulder checks.
Among the few Damascenes I have met, Aleppo is legendary for its beautiful buildings and slower pace. Damascus is built on the shoulders of hideous grey cement blocks, busy traffic and smog. Aleppo is decorated by beautiful limestone sourced from neighbouring quarries. Even persistent car jams and honking are softer. The buildings are bright shades of white against the evening sun.
The city – like the rest of Syria – is rich with history. It is the oldest inhabited city with known human settlement for at least 4,000 years. It was the third largest city under the Ottoman Empire and was strategically located at the end of the Silk Road. We visit the Citadel, one of the more notable features of Aleppo’s extensive history and one of the oldest and largest castles in the world. The grounds are beautiful and parts of it well preserved. We walk through the souqs after. Like in Uganda, shop keepers sell everything under the moon. Bright tights, gold embroidered shirts, famous Aleppo soaps, leather clogs, polyester shirts, Puma knock-offs, colourful flowered scarves.
For dinner we retire to a beautiful courtyard restaurant. The balconies above us expertly carved into mahogany curves. We try a variety of local dishes including cherry kebab – delicious pieces of lamb meat stewed in sweet cherry sauce – with Syrian wine and raki. The smell of apple shisha has become a fabric of every place I visit.
