Aleppo, or Halab, as it is called in Arabic, is, like Damascus, one of the oldest occupied cities in the world. Both date back around 5000 years. Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, has a population of about 2 1/2 million and its old city, like that of Damascus, has been included on the UNESCO World Heritage list. It assumed importance thousands of years ago owing to its location on the Europe-India route and on the part of the Silk Road leading from China to the Mediterranean, as well as on the route from Istanbul to Cairo and Istanbul to Mecca. We arrived there from the south-east, from the Euphrates valley, and were horrified to be "welcomed" by a landscape that looked as if it was the heart of Syria's possibly non-functioning recycling scheme (scrap metal everywhere), relieved only occasionally by tiny pistachio (we were told they are the best in the world) plantations.

Approx. 30% of the Aleppans are Christians (3x as many as in Damascus) and the first quarter we headed for was the Armenian one, with its magnificent old homes, all with courtyards, fountains, exquisitely tiled floors and occasional erotic drawings on the cellar walls. Today, they are hotels or restaurants and guests are apparently welcome to wander through. About 40 000 Armenian Christians arrived in Aleppo around 1920, fleeing from Anatolia when the Turkish national movement drove the French military out. Fearing another genocide like the one during World War I, the Armenians came to Beirut and Aleppo with the French, to join the Armenian communities already in existence there. It's very odd to wander through a district where christian churches and shops selling traditional long black "abaya" for women (some even hitchhike in them - probably a good idea) are to be found side by side. Aleppo has a total of about 500 mosques and 40 churches.

All kinds of peoples have invaded Aleppo in the course of its long history - the Byzantines in 962, the Crusaders in the 11th and 12th centuries, the Mongols in 1260, the Mamelukes from Egypt after them, and in 1517 the Ottoman Turks. In 1882 there was a bad earthquake and in 1869, when the Suez Canal was opened, Aleppo was pushed out to the edge of the main trading routes to the east of the Mediterranean.

We had very little time for this fascinating city - one and a half days were definitely not enough - so just managed to see the magnificent citadel (with extensive views of the city from the highest point and schoolboys daring to break their teachers' rules by climbing over all the protective fences - others were entering the moat via tunnels through the walls!), the colouful, atmospheric souk (full of olive soap and multicoloured women's lingerie - see book entitled "The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie" by Malu Halasa and Rana Salam), the Omayyad Mosque (less impressive than the one in Damascus), the Khan al-Wazir (was, in times of yore, a magnicent caravanserai, but is occupied by carpet- and lingerie-pedlars today), the excellent National Museum, which even includes exhibits from Tel Brak, excavated by Agatha Christie's archaeologist husband, among others. We were amazed to notice sheep living on a roof opposite our hotel - Aleppo, too, is good for surprises!

Our visit to the ruins at Qala'at Samaan (St. Simeon's Monastery) was a half-day excursion north of Aleppo and definitely worth the trip. Olive groves, fig trees and occasionally banana trees were to be seen, as well as traces of stone cities of the past - the so-called "dead" or "forgotten" cities of the Byzantine era. Ruined villas, spas, monasteries and churches were often sighted in the distance - mysterious witnesses to the days of the wealthy landowners who built them and victims of the earthquakes which affect this part of the world. St. Simeon, or Simeon the Stylite, as he was known, lived from 389-459 AD and spent the last 40 years of his life on top of a 40m high column, from where he preached. The ruins of St. Simeon's monastery are most picturesque, with views of a stoney landscape dotted with olive groves and with the occasional eucalypt (gum tree a la Australia) amid the fallen columns and superb sculpture of the old monastery buildings.