Aleppo is an ancient city with a modern problem - continuous warfare.
Most of us have been watching the disasters in Syria, with the
fighting raging around Aleppo specifically, with mounting horror. Apart from
the obvious human aspects, Aleppo is one of the oldest cities in the world
which is still inhabited, being over 7000 years old. Early records indicate it
was the centre of various kingdoms who continually fought over it, but more
recently, a mere 3500 years ago it was conquered by the Hittites and
subsequently found itself in the frontline against the Egyptian Empire. Christian
Jacq’s “The battle of Kadesh” gives a most entertaining account of life and
warfare in those times.
Then, after numerous forced changes of ownership over the next few
thousand years Aleppo found itself in the Persian Empire (about 700 BC). Next,
it became a centre for Greek culture (about 400 years later) when Alexander of
Macedon swept through and gave relative stability for the next couple of
hundred years until the Romans arrived in about 70 BC. They in turn allowed
Aleppo to thrive throughout the Byzantine centuries until the Persians swept
back in about 600 AD, with Arabs arriving about 50 years later. They introduced
great prosperity for several centuries until the Crusaders arrived in the
eleventh century. This ushered in more centuries of fighting and squabbling
between Arabs, Crusaders, Mongols and Mamluks with Aleppo always being in the
centre of the storm. But then the Ottoman Turks managed to grab control in the
early sixteenth century which brought stability until the early twentieth century
when the area became linked to Syria, with several false starts including
French Protectorate and even an attempt at Independence in between.
So warfare, misery and human tragedy has a long history in that area
and it seems unlikely that our generation of leaders will solve the problems
which have thwarted their predecessors. But for the modern tourist it is a
disaster that so many historical remains are in the frontline; modern weapons
are so much more destructive than their earlier equivalents so millenia of
history can be destroyed in moments.
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