Few places are as ancient and diverse as Aleppo - one of the oldest, continuousl
y inhabited cities in the world - successively ruled by the Assyrian, Persian, G
reek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman and French empires. Under the Ottomans, it became the
empire's third largest city, after Constantinople and Cairo. It owed its wealth
to its position at the end of the Silk Road, at a crossroads of world trade, wh
ere merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra gathered in the largest suq in the M
iddle East.
