Geography of Aleppo
Aleppo, (Arabic: Halab), Syria, the nation's second largest city. It is about 190 miles (306 km) north-northeast of Damascus. Aleppo is an ancient city dating from Biblical times. It was the capital of a Hittite kingdom before 1000 B.C. and was long a principal stop on the main caravan route between Persia and the Mediterranean Sea. Modern Aleppo is one of Syria's leading commercial and industrial centers, producing mainly processed foods, textiles, and clothing. The most imposing of the city's many historic structures is the Citadel, a 12th-century Muslim fortress built on the ruins of earlier Byzantine fortifications. Aleppo has a university and an archeological museum.
Population: 1,445,000.