Beit Ghazaleh

From the street it is a plain stone wall. The door is narrow, the sign is small. Behind it lies a mansion of six courtyards that shows the outside nothing at all. In the 17th century it belonged to the Ghazaleh family, Christian merchants of Aleppo, and it stayed with them for two hundred years.

Getting there

From Al-Hatab Square walk north into al-Kayali street. The house is on your right; the carved wooden oriels on the opposite side are a good marker. Two minutes on foot from the square.

What to see

The main courtyard covers 250 square metres. Facing the iwan, the north facade is carved stone from top to bottom and has no equal in Aleppo. The large room in the east wing is dated 1691; a psalm ran along the ceiling cornice, proverbs along the wooden panelling, and Arabic verse across the panels above the openings. The west wing holds the household’s own hammam.

Where things stand

After 1914 the house served as a school, then was restored to become a museum of the city’s memory. It was badly damaged in the fighting of 2012-2016 and almost all of its wooden panels were stripped out; the loss was filed with Interpol and the International Council of Museums. A precise survey of the structure was completed in 2017, emergency consolidation began in 2021, and the earthquakes of 2023 did further harm. Repair work continues. Ask whether you can go inside before you set out.

What most people miss

The street door itself. The entrance to a house this size is a narrow arch between two lamps. Aleppo mansions show none of their wealth outward, and that door makes the point faster than anything inside.