why destroying that
thousand year old culture
to start from scratch
non of the holy books
told us to fight our neighbors
way too much of hate
once the sandy desert
invades cities and cultures
what will be left then
morgentau © dawndew
Scattered around Aleppo are up to 700 ruined cities dating from the first to eighth centuries AD. Evocative and abandoned they are a unique record of life in ancient times. They have also become a battlefield and heavy damage has been reported. Of course, the human suffering is far more important and pressing, but I also mourn the loss of a place that so effortlessly encapsulated everything that was light, vivacious, sociable and friendly, everything that war is not. Architecturally the bazaar was not unique. What it had was tradition, heritage and incredible diversity. Five hundred years after Shakespeare made Aleppo souk the epitome of a distant cornucopia, you could still buy almost anything here, eat and drink a vast range of dishes, and even bathe in the traditional Hammam Nahasin.
There were eight miles of lanes linking a range of khans or caravanserai – the British Consul held court in one of them well into the 20th century. When I first wandered in via the gate near the citadel, I discovered that there was only one thing I could not find in there: the desire to leave. It was just too diverting and fascinating. Every shopkeeper seemed to want to have a chat over a glass of red tea. Eventually all this mercantile activity focussed into one particular area, the fabulous bazaar al Madina souk was built, mostly in the Ottoman heyday of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a honeycomb of surprises and flavours, a tribute to the best aspects of human society, but now it has run smack into the opposite tendency: war. (Citation from the guardian)
There were eight miles of lanes linking a range of khans or caravanserai – the British Consul held court in one of them well into the 20th century. When I first wandered in via the gate near the citadel, I discovered that there was only one thing I could not find in there: the desire to leave. It was just too diverting and fascinating. Every shopkeeper seemed to want to have a chat over a glass of red tea. Eventually all this mercantile activity focussed into one particular area, the fabulous bazaar al Madina souk was built, mostly in the Ottoman heyday of the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a honeycomb of surprises and flavours, a tribute to the best aspects of human society, but now it has run smack into the opposite tendency: war. (Citation from the guardian)
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