Aleppo, Ebla, and the North
From the moment I arrived in Syria, I encountered the famous hospitality of the Syrian people. Everyone I encountered was patient with my academic Arabic, and each person did everything they could to help me. Thanks to their assistance, I was able to make my way to Aleppo.

I met up with Nora in Aleppo at the historic Baron Hotel, the famous hotel built in 1911 which once served as the terminus of the Orient Express and where many notable guests stayed including Theodore Roosevelt, Lawrence of Arabia, Max Mallowan, and Agatha Christie. The accommodations have not changed much in its 96 years but it had a unique charm that made it an appropriate first base in Syria.

Aleppo is a wonderful city. Like Damascus, people will tell you that it is the longest continually inhabited city on Earth. It is actually very difficult to find evidence to prove such things, since a living city usually makes excavation impossible, but the earliest cuneiform texts to describe the region do indeed mention a city called Hal-pa-pa in the region. Aleppo has been one of the great transit cities on Earth, catering to the needs of people and goods coming and going in every direction. Although it is less of a crucial junction in today’s trade routes, the city still preserves some of its original character and I found it to be one of the most charming places I have ever visited. To me, the most surprising feature (though it should not have been), is how multicultural the city is. Aleppo is a great Middle Eastern melting pot filled with a catalogue of peoples and heritages. I enjoyed being there very much.

My Syrian “initiation” began on my second full day in the county. Most of the people we know who go to Syria come down with some form of Traveller’s Diarrhoea when they first arrive. I was, apparently, no exception, but fortunately, I overcame it after a day of bed rest and a long night’s sleep, and I was on the move again the next day. One point worth mentioning, however, is that foods and liquids here have varying degrees of clean and they frequently have nothing to do with appearances. Usually after an hour or two of ingesting something, one learns if it was of a lesser degree. I have been receiving quite an education.

I visited the Aleppo museum but I have few positive things to say about it. It has an astonishing collection of Third Millennium material, many attractive and unusual Neo-Hittite bas-reliefs, and a few panels of Assyrian wall painting, but unfortunately, the museum is in such a disorganized state that it is virtually incomprehensible to anyone but a specialist. The case labels, when present at all, are usually in the excavators’ language, which is not helpful to people who speak less than seven languages. The tablet displays are very haphazard: many pieces are upside-down or hang diagonally. Major construction is being conducted near the front entrance of the building; I can only hope that this is the beginning of a major renovation.

From Aleppo, we set out to see the major sites in the region. A countless number of historical sites fill the area, but since many of them are Medieval or unexcavated, we focused on the oldest and most attractive ones. My personal favourite was the Neo-Hittite temple of Ishtar at ‘Ain Dara. It is small mound overlooking a fertile valley of orchards and fields, atop which sits the remains of numerous constructions including a temple of basalt blocks. Basalt last much longer than mud-brick so the site is impressively intact for its age. The outline of the temple is fully coherent and many monuments remain, including a guardian lion that my mother would love. Another impressive site was the Apamea, a Seleucid city with a largely intact (though heavily restored) colonnade overlooking the beautiful valley al-Ghab. At the end of our excursion, we settled into Hama, a modern city at the site of ancient Hamath, famous today for its large water wheels, or "Norias," that carry river water into the aqueducts, which continue to serve the city.

The following day we set out for Tell Mardikh, the site of the ancient metropolis Ebla – one of the most powerful cities of the Third Millennium BC and the site of one of the earliest archives of cuneiform tablets ever found. We had a few challenges getting there but after patiently listening to a lecture on foreign policy, we arrived at our destination. Thanks to a reference provided by my undergraduate professor, I was able to contact two of the Italian archaeologists excavating the site. They were Gabriella and Davide, and they were very hospitable and kind. We shared lunch in the dig house and then drove out to the site where they provided us a wonderful tour and history of the excavation. Although I have read quite a bit about Ebla over the years, standing in the ruins of an Ancient Near Eastern city is entirely different from reading a map. The city was enormous, measuring at least 50 hectares in area, and since excavations have been ongoing since the sixties, one is able to see many different phases of excavation and reconstruction. Before visiting the site, I assumed that seeing the site of the cuneiform archive would be the most exciting part of the site, but instead the uniquely Syrian dimensions and forms of religious architecture at Ebla were much more captivating. I could write a great deal about what I learned from visiting this site, and what impressions it left me with, but they would make for poor reading unless you are passionate about Ancient Near Eastern history. Suffice to say, this visit accomplished one of my primary goals for my trip.

Taking Gabriella and Davide’s advice, we returned to Aleppo in order to stop off at the Ebla site museum in the small town of Idlib.