Aleppo, Syria

Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. Aleppo is the second-largest city in Syria, after the capital Damascus. Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC.[Such a long history is attributed to its strategic location as a trading centre between the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia.

The main role of the city was as a trading place throughout the history, as it sat at the crossroads of two trade routes and mediated the trade from India, the Tigris and Euphrates regions and the route coming from Damascus in the South, which traced the base of the mountains rather than the rugged seacoast. The commercial traditions in Aleppo have deep roots in the history. The Aleppo Chamber of commerce founded in 1885, is one of the oldest chambers in the Middle East and the Arab world. According to many historians, Aleppo was the third most developed commercial and industrial city in the Ottoman Empire.

As the largest urban area in pre-civil war Syria, Aleppo was considered the capital of Syrian industry. The economy of the city was mainly driven by textiles, chemicals, pharmaceutics, agro-processing industries, electrical commodities, alcoholic beverages, engineering and tourism. It occupied a dominant position in the country's manufacturing output, with a share of more than 50% of manufacturing employment, and an even greater export share.

Possessing the most developed commercial and industrial plants in Syria, Aleppo is a major centre for manufacturing precious metals and stones. The annual amount of the processed gold produced in Aleppo is around 8.5 tonnes, making up to 40% of the entire manufactured gold in Syria.

The industrial city of Aleppo in Sheikh Najjar district is one of the largest in Syria and the region. Occupying an area of 4,412 hectares (10,900 acres) in the north-eastern suburbs of Aleppo, the total investments in the city counted more than US $3.4 billion during 2010. Still under development, it is envisaged to open hotels, exhibition centres and other facilities within the industrial city. The old traditional crafts are well-preserved in the old part of the city. The famous laurel soap of Aleppo is considered to be the world's first hard soap.