Syria: Aleppo And The North

Syria is rightly considered to be one of the cradles of civilisation – the region in which the three big religions originated. This film takes us to the ancient archaeological excavations of Ugarit on the Mediterranean and to the World Heritage Site of Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world. Northern Syria is one of the central regions in the “Fertile Crescent” between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq. Some of the earliest human settlements have been found to be in this region. This is the birthplace of agriculture and it was here that the first high cultures arose. The ancient city of Aleppo and its souk, made up of 12 km of alleyways and lanes, is considered one of the most important in the Orient. This souk is evidence of Aleppo’s ranking as a major centre of trade, an interface between the East and the Mediterranean region. As early as the 13th century, the Venetians had a trading office in Aleppo. The “Dead Cities” in the limestone massif south of the Aleppo bear testimony to the early Christian history of Syria, with for example the cloister where St. Simeon the Stylite was revered and the desert site of Resafa, which was dedicated to the Syrian martyr, Sergius.

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