Aleppo

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Aleppo is the largest city in Syria, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Entering the main souq in the old town feels like stepping back in time, and there is no glitz and glamour to make you feel it is anything other than a workaday shopping area, albeit with exotic-seeming items on sale such as sheep heads, bolts of raw silk, olive oil soap, and wool abayas.

There are numerous mosques, khans, and madrassas, and the citadel on the hill at the end of the souq dates back to the first millennium BC.

The Christian quarter has pretty churches, and fine mansions that have been converted into incredible restaurants serving such dishes as cherry kebabs, and fiery mohamara – a dip made from red chillies, and usually walnuts and pine nuts.