Fighting has long died down in Syria’s largest city but Aleppo’s centuries-old market still has to come back to life, more than a year after government forces retook rebel-held neighbourhoods around the Old City.
Few shops have reopened in the once sprawling bazaar in the historic quarter, with Unesco estimating as much as 60% of the Old City was severely damaged and 30% destroyed.
The bazaar, or souk, is believed to be one of the world’s oldest covered markets. The market is part of Aleppo’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage Site, which also boasts a 13th century citadel, the Great Mosque of Aleppo, also known as the Umayyad Mosque, and several other monuments, nearly all of which have been damaged or destroyed.
