The citadel of Aleppo (Arabic , DMG Qal at...

The citadel of Aleppo (Arabic , DMG Qal at alab) stands on a hill (tell) in the middle of the old town of Aleppo in northern Syria. It is considered to be one of the oldest and largest fortresses in the world. The earliest traces of settlement lead back to the middle of the third millennium BC. The place was inhabited by many civilizations, including the Greeks, Byzantines, Ayyubids and Mamluks. Most of today's buildings and fortifications probably date from the Ayyubid period in the 13th century. Major restoration work took place in the mid-2000s and was carried out by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Aleppo Archaeological Society. The citadel, which dominates the old city, is a tourist attraction and a site of excavations and archaeological studies. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986. [1] In the current civil war, the citadel was badly damaged.

Hurrians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Persians edit
In the cuneiform texts of Ebla and Mari a main shrine of the weather god Adad was mentioned in Aleppo. This temple from the third millennium BC was discovered at the end of the 20th century. [2] Aleppo later became the capital of the Yamchad Empire (19th to 17th centuries BC). According to a popular story, the name Aleppo derives from the fact that Abraham milked his sheep on the hill. [3] Aleppo was dominated several times by the Hittites. In the second half of the 14th century, uppiluliuma I established a secondary school under his son Telipinu. This is mentioned on an inscription in the south wall of the al-Qaiqan mosque in Aleppo. [4] After the collapse of the late Hittite state of alpa / Aleppo, the Assyrians dominated the region (8th to 4th centuries BC), which were then replaced by the Babylonians and the Persians (539 to 333 BC) ]

Seleucids edit