Aleppo

The Border Crossing into Syria from Turkey

I really did do something besides attend a New Year’s Eve party in Aleppo. Our bus left Gaziantep at 8:00 AM. It was less than an hour to the border, and the drive t was lovely. The countryside has greened up, and it was a bright, sunny day. In fact, I actually dug out my sunglasses when we got to Aleppo. We ended up waiting quite a while to get across the border. I was surprised we had to wait so long on the Turkish side. Of course, they had to collect the 15 TL all Turks have to pay when they leave the country, but our guide actually collected that money ahead of time. I don’t know what the big wait was. Then we waited again for the Syrian officials to do their work. Of course, we weren’t the only ones crossing. It was a nice day so we stood around outside the bus.

It was then that I met my roommate. When I signed up for the tour, I had to pay the single room supplement because I had no one to share a room with. I did tell the travel agent that I would be willing to share if another woman on the tour wanted a roommate. It turned out that a very dear woman was traveling with her daughter and son-in-law and was willing to share. She had been a French teacher but retired 30 years ago. Between the bit of French we both knew, the bit of English she knew and my few works of Turkish supplemented by my pocket dictionary, we got along famously. You’ll see her in a photo later on.

Entrance to citadel. The smaller guardhouse is in front, the larger behind.

There was an Arabic-speaking Turkish guide on the bus, but we picked up a Turkish speaking Syrian guide at the border. He provided all the commentary – in Turkish, of course. When we first arrived in Aleppo he was pointing our certain buildings, but I never really did figure out what they were. Our first real stop was the citadel. Lot’s of cities in the region have citadels in the middle of the older part of town. However, Aleppo’s is truly impressive. In fact, it withstood all sieges, including one by the Crusaders, until the Mongols arrived. The first Mongols actually only captured the citadel by subterfuge; it was Tamurlane who provide the defenders of Aleppo with their first military defeat.

Looking up at the second larger guard house

Unlike Gaziantep’s citadel you can actually enter this one, through two separate guard houses. The second one is huge and you corridor is like a maze, build to withstand any frontal attack. From there you go across a bridge and into the main part of the citadel.


Although the actual interior is basically in ruins, it is clear that it was once a little city in itself. It even had an amphitheater, which is still in good shape. We went deep inside the castle and saw dungeons and cisterns. There were also a couple of mosques. It’s hard to imagine the history that structure has witnessed.

One of the many arches and doorways still standing. The black and white stonework is typical.

After viewing the castle we had a late (3:30 PM) lunch. As we were entering the restaurant the Syrian guide came up and told me how very glad he was that I, as an American, was visiting Syria. He wanted me to know that the Syrian people really like the American people. He repeated himself a couple of times – and then added that it was Bush they didn’t like. I pointed out that Bush was no longer in office. However, I must say it did make me feel good that he made the effort to recognize my presence. I’m sad that more Americans don’t visit, because despite what our respective governments do, I think it’s important to keep up the people-to-people contact.

After lunch we were given two hours of free time to shop. One of the entrances to the bazaar was right near the the castle, possibly the biggest tourist attraction in town. My Syrian guidebook pointed out that the labyrinth of narrow covered streets comprising the bazaar is 15 km in length – surely not to be missed. So my roommate Turkan and I plunged in. Because this entrance is near a huge tourist attraction, going down the first couple hundred yards is like running a gauntlet. The salesmen practically throw themselves at you. If they are selling scarves, they put the scarves around you as you walk – and these are the same scarves you see all over Turkey. You can’t really even make eye contact. I made the mistake of stopping to look at some little bags at one of the scarf vendors. When I turned one over, I remarked that the cloth on the back came from Gaziantep – it’s very distinctive, and Gaziantep is known for it. He said no, no it was Syrian but then quickly drew my attention to some silk scarves with block prints that his family supposedly made – and which I saw in numerous other shops down the aisle. He quoted me some totally outrageous price. Frankly, I didn’t want anything at any price and was finally able to extricate myself and move along. Further along things settled down a bit. We came to the shops selling bolts of gorgeous fabric. If you were a seamstress, you would go wild there, although I’m not certain if I’d ever have the chance to wear anything made out of such fabric.

After about a half hour I sensed Turkan needed to get out of there. We took a few wrong turns but finally made our way to the entrance. Actually, women vendors had already begun to close up shop. We located the cafe that was to be the group meeting point and found a seat under one of the heaters – the temperature dropped noticeably after the sun went down. I was here that I had an experience that might have been the highlight of the trip.

As I sat looking up at the castle, tastefully and gently lit from below, the full moon rose from behind the corner of one of the guard towers. It took my breath away – the inky blue sky, silhouettes of palm and cedar trees. The sight conjured up all the images that formed in my imagination when I was reading all those 19^th century German novellas. You can see how those crusading soldiers from dark and dreary northern Europe might have responded – and why some of them stayed.

I was sad to leave the café, but we had to get to the hotel for the party you’ve presumably read about already. We got a very late start – 12:30 PM – the next day. I don’t know if anyone actually stayed until 5 AM, but most people didn’t start appearing until nearly 11 AM. They only stop we made before leaving Aleppo was the Great Mosque – or Zachariah Mosque as our guide called it.

There was a similar dedicatory plaque in Arabic. Click on this photo and you can clearly read this inscription.

In the main sanctuary there is a shrine said to contain the head of Zachariah, father of John the Baptist.

Note that men and women visit the shrine on different sides of a partition

The mosque itself was built in the courtyard of a former Byzantine cathedral, and parts of the cathedral can apparently still be seen. I didn’t find them, but that is supposed to be the case. Even though all the women in our group were completely covered and were wearing scarves, we nevertheless had to don hooded robes that left us looking a little bit like those characters in Star Wars who wore those brown hooded cloaks.

My roommate Turkan is in the middle, her daughter on the left and me on the right

I must say, I always feel a bit like I’m intruding when I play tourist in a space where people are trying to pray. On the other hand, people let their children run and play in that same space. I was surprised to see three- and four-year-old children ripping and racing around – apparently with full approval of their parents.

Entrance to sanctuary -- note hooded tourist in foreground

So that was the visit to Aleppo. We boarded the bus and were off to Damascus.