Aleppo_

Aleppo's surviving souks whisper of Silk Road grandeur amid Syria's resilient heartland, with a dry Mediterranean climate tempering its layered history. Adventurous nomads tap into spotty but improving networks for work near ancient citadels and savory kibbeh stalls.

Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the country's most populous governorate. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents as of 2021, it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and was the largest by population until it was surpassed by Damascus, the capital of Syria. Aleppo is also the largest city in Syria's northern governorates and one of the largest cities in the Levant region. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. That is also the time at which Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in Ebla and Mesopotamia, which speak of it as part of the Amorite state of Yamhad, and note its commercial and military importance.