Featured places
Mosques, caravanserais, souks, museums — and why they are worth the walk.
6 Places
Al-Sharafiyah Madrasa
A madrasa complex east of the Great Mosque of Aleppo, in the Suwayqat Hatim quarter. It took forty years to build, and its founder never saw it finished.
Aleppo · Ayyubid
The Al-Shadhbakhtiyya Madrasa
One of the earliest Ayyubid madrasas still standing in Aleppo. Built by a freed Indian slave who deputised at the citadel; its marble mihrab survives.
Aleppo · Ayyubid
The Al-Rukniyya Madrasa
An Ayyubid madrasa on the lower slope of Mount Qasiyun, dominating the square of the Rukn al-Din quarter: ribbed domes, a square minaret, its founder’s tomb inside.
Damascus · Ayyubid
The Al-Umariyya Madrasa
The school built by the refugee family who founded the Salihiyya quarter. Once 360 rooms and the largest in Damascus; only the ground floor survives today.
Damascus · Zengid — Ayyubid
The Sultaniyya Madrasa
An Ayyubid complex facing the entrance of the Aleppo Citadel: a madrasa, a mosque and the tomb of al-Malik al-Zahir Ghazi, the son of Saladin, in one court.
Aleppo · Ayyubid
The Uthmaniyya Madrasa
A large Ottoman complex just beyond Bab al-Nasr, built between 1730 and 1738. Its courtyard is ringed by 42 student rooms, and its minaret is cylindrical.
Aleppo · Ottoman
