THAT WAS ALEPPO THEN, THIS IS NOW ...
After four years of war and siege, the havoc and destruction wrought on the unique historical treasures of the Old City of Aleppo are in plain sight
Evidence of the huge cost to Syrian city in Assad’s drive to retain power,
ALEPPO // If anyone ever doubted what four years of barrel bombs, air strikes, artillery bombardment, street fighting and more than 31,000 deaths could do to a city, they need doubt no more.
The last shell-shocked and bedraggled people, rebel fighters and non-combatant civilians alike, are fleeing their eastern enclave, and Bashar Al Assad has declared victory in the battle of Aleppo.
These are the spoils of his victory. The historic Islamic-era souq now a shambles of rubble-strewn streets and scorched walls pocked with bullet holes; the 11th-century minaret of the Umayyad mosque now just a heap of ancient stones, the mosque’s elegant floor and arcaded walls a bitter reminder of what once was; the 13th-century Nahasin bathhouse now home only to a pile of mangled, twisted metal; one of the Middle East’s greatest treasures reduced to dross, a Unesco World Heritage Site whose only heritage now is one of destruction, bloodshed and death.
The great Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Salah Ad Din, who founded the Ayyubid dynasty in the 12th century, said Aleppo was “the eye of Syria, and the Citadel is its pupil”.
While that Citadel remains largely intact – it would take more than a few barrel bombs to destroy a fortress that has stood for nearly 1,000 years, built on a hill where the prophet Abraham milked his sheep – the elegant plaza in front of the steps leading to the main entrance, where tourists once thronged, is now masonry and dust.
“These streets are very familiar,” said Abdel Rahman Berry, a lawyer, standing in front of the Citadel.
“My school was near by. Now, only part of it is left. It is ruined. They have ravaged our childhood memories.”