Beit Junblatt

It sits in the Bandara quarter of Farafira, inside the walls. A Kurdish emir, Janbulad ibn Qasim, had it built in the second half of the 16th century. The largest iwan in Aleppo is here: a single arch facing the courtyard that reduces the whole house to one surface. Hussein Pasha Janpolad, Ottoman governor of Aleppo, lived here briefly in 1604.

Getting there

North-west of the Aleppo Citadel, in the narrow lanes of Farafira. You walk north from the souq. There are no signs; asking your way for the last hundred metres is normal, and people in the quarter know the house.

What to see

A rectangular pool sits in the middle of the courtyard, edged with a band of black and yellow stone. Facing it stands the great iwan. Its inner surface was covered in blue and white qashani tiles, with bands of Persian-style inscription running between them. Two storeys of rooms line the west and north sides of the courtyard.

Where things stand

The house passed to the al-Kawakibi family after 1766 and was repaired in the 20th century to serve as a cultural centre and library. It was both damaged and looted in the fighting of 2012-2016: most of the tiles were prised off the iwan wall, and matching tiles were offered at a Western auction in 2015. The building stands; the inside is largely empty. Access depends on permission and the door may be locked.

What most people miss

The stripped patches on the iwan. Surviving runs of tile sit beside empty beds of mortar, and one wall tells you the last decade of the building.