Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
813 Places
Tell Qaramel
Circular stone towers on this mound 25 km north of Aleppo date to 10650-9650 BC, the oldest such structures known. Excavation stopped in 2011 because of the war.
Aleppo · Pre-Pottery Neolithic A — Hellenistic
Suweiqat Hatem
The little souq of the Farafira quarter, one of the two long alleys of Suweiqa. Khans stand around it and the shops here sell household and kitchen goods.
Aleppo · Ottoman
Surp Hagop Armenian Church, Aleppo
A small Armenian Apostolic church in the Old Syriac Quarter. The Italian consul in Aleppo gave the land; it was consecrated in 1943 and still has no dome.
Aleppo · French Mandate
Souq as-Souf
The wool market of Aleppo, outside the walls. It runs along Salibeh street in Jdeydeh, ringed by the old churches of the quarter, market and church side by side.
Aleppo · Ottoman
Souq as-Siyyagh
The jewellers’ lane of Aleppo, described as the main jewellery market in Syria: 99 shops set along two parallel alleys inside the souq. Entry is free.
Aleppo · Ottoman
The Al-Sarawi Mosque
A Mamluk quarter mosque 350 metres north-east of the Aleppo Citadel, dated by its inscriptions to 780/1378. Entry is free and bread is sold at the door.
Aleppo · Mamluk
The Al-Salihin Cemetery, Aleppo
The large burial ground outside Bab al-Maqam. Maqam Ibrahim stands inside it, the gate is named after that shrine, and Aleppo’s southern axis ends here.
Aleppo · Mamluk — Ottoman
The Al-Sakakini Mosque, Aleppo
A Mamluk mosque of 1371 on the Bab al-Maqam road, between the Tawashi and Atrush mosques. Known for its muqarnas portal and for a stone minbar, rare in Aleppo.
Aleppo · Mamluk (the sultanate that ruled Syria from Cairo)
The Al-Sha’baniyya Madrasa, Aleppo
An Ottoman college of 1674 in Farafra, north of the citadel. Its endowment set one rule: only students from outside Aleppo were allowed to lodge here.
Aleppo · Ottoman
Souq an-Niswan
The bride’s lane of the Aleppo souq: wedding dresses, accessories and trousseau. Long and fully covered, with the gold and herb souqs branching off it.
Aleppo · Ottoman
The Al-Maydani Mosque
A Mamluk mosque in the Almaji quarter of Aleppo, between the citadel and Jdayde. Its octagonal minaret twins the one at the Mahmandar Mosque. Entry is free.
Aleppo · Mamluk; minaret rebuilt in the 16th century
Mashhad al-Muhassin, Aleppo
The oldest known Shia shrine in Aleppo. Sayf al-Dawla had it founded in 962, and the stone standing on the slope today comes out of a 13th-century rebuild.
Aleppo · Hamdanid, rebuilt under the Ayyubids