Khan Khayr Bek

It stands in the Suwayqat Ali quarter, in the Farafra part of the old city. The Mamluk emir Khayr Bek had it built in 1514. The khan itself is an ordinary trading building. Its founder was not ordinary: he was the last Mamluk governor of Aleppo, and the date of the building falls two years before the city changed hands.

Getting there

You come in through Farafra, and the Khanqah al-Farafra is the landmark people use for this quarter. Suwayqat Ali is one of two long streets where the khans of household goods cluster. It sits off the main arms of the souq, so it is quiet, but it is still within walking distance.

What to see

The quarter tells you more than the building does. These streets have dealt in pots, basins, matting and rope for centuries, and the khans went up as warehouses for that trade. Khan Khayr Bek belongs to the same system: a courtyard, two storeys, a gate onto the street, and nothing for show.

Who built it

Khayr Bek governed Aleppo for the Mamluk sultanate. At the battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516 he went over to Selim I; the battle ended in the defeat of the Mamluk army, and Syria passed to the Ottomans. Khayr Bek then became the first Ottoman governor of Egypt. So this khan is one of the endowments a governor left behind in his own city, dated to just before that turning point. Sources attach the same founder to the Awj Khan group in Souq al-Nahhasin, whose older name was Khan al-Atshan, the thirsty khan.

What most people miss

Khan Kurt Bek, in the same quarter. The two stand close together and belong to the same street pattern, yet people see one and skip the other. Having come as far as Suwayqat Ali, walking both takes five minutes.