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Aleppo City : In News

Aleppo City : In News

Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, has fallen from government control for the first time since the country’s conflict began more than a decade ago.

  • Aleppo, or “Halab” in Arabic, is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities, being mentioned in Egyptian texts from the 20th century BC.
  • It is a principal city of northern Syria.
  • It is situated in the northwestern part of the country, about 30 miles (50 km) south of the Turkish border.
  • It lies some 60 miles (100 km) from both the Mediterranean Sea (west) and the Euphrates River (east).
  • Located at the crossroads of several trade routes from the 2nd millennium B.C., Aleppo was ruled successively by the Hittites, Assyrians, Arabs, Mongols, Mamelukes and Ottomans.
  • Aleppo’s most visible landmark is the medieval citadel, which sits on a partly man-made hill at the center of the city about 40 meters high.
  • The Queiq River runs through the city, although it has at times run dry in Aleppo partly because of heavy water use in Turkey, where it originates.
  • Aleppo was a focal point of the Syrian Civil War from 2012 until 2016, when opposition fighters there surrendered the city to government forces.