Features include interactive map, in-depth stories, and
more.Download now. » The week's top five must-sees, delivered to
your inbox. Aleppo, located in northwestern Syria 310 kilometres
from Damascus, is the largest city in Syria and serves as the
capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian
governorate. With an official population of 2,132,100, it is
also one of the largest cities in the Levant. For centuries,
Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's
third, after İstanbul and Cairo. Aleppo is one of the oldest
continuously inhabited cities in the world; it has been
inhabited since perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC.
Excavations at Tell as-Sawda and Tell al-Ansari, just south of
the old city of Aleppo, show that the area was occupied since at
least the latter part of the 3rd millennium BC; and this is also
when Aleppo is first mentioned in cuneiform tablets unearthed in
Ebla and Mesopotamia, in which it is noted for its commercial
and military proficiency. Such a long