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.