Aleppo (Arabic Halab) is a city in northern Syria, the second largest city in Syria after Damascus, and one of the oldest inhabited cities in history. The name Halab is of obscure origins, frequently proposed etymology is that the word halab means "gave out milk," relating to an ancient tradition that the Hebrew patriarch Abraham gave milk to travelers as they moved throughout the region. The color of Abraham's cows was reportedly ashen (Arab. shaheb), and therefore the city is also called Halab ash-Shahba.
Originating in the early second millennium In the third century C.E., Aleppo was the greatest center of trade between Europe and lands farther east. B.C.E.
Aleppo was selected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, based upon two criteria: It bears an exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to Islamic civilization, and it is an outstanding example of architecture, illustrating a significant stage in human history. The UNESCO selection committee specifically cites Aleppo's collection of architecture from diverse cultures and civilizations, which "all form part of the city's cohesive, unique urban fabric, now threatened by overpopulation."
While more than 70 percent of Aleppo's inhabitants are Sunni Muslims (mainly Arabs, but also Kurds, and other diverse ethnicities relocated there during the Ottoman period), Aleppo is home to one of the richest and most diversified Christian communities of the Orient. Christians belonging to a dozen different congregations, with prevalence of the Armenian and Syriac Orthodox Church, represent between 15 percent and 20 percent of its population, making it the city with the second largest Christian community in the Middle East after Beirut, Lebanon.
The city had a large Jewish population in ancient times. The great synagogue housed the famous Aleppo codex, dating back to the ninth century and now housed in Jerusalem. The vast majority of Aleppo's 10,000 Jewish residents moved abroad after the creation of the state of Israel due to various social and political pressures. Today, few Jewish families still live in Aleppo today, and the synagogue remains virtually empty.
