In the North of Syria Pt. 1 - En Route to Aleppo (28/39)

In the North of Syria Pt. 1 - En Route to Aleppo (28/39)

Aleppo, a city in the north of Syria, is one of those places which has been inhabited since primeval times. Archeological finds date back to the Stone Age. Aleppo experienced its heydays in the 2^nd millennium B.C. and in the age of the crusades, in the Middle Ages. It was then that the citadelles which still dominate the cityscape were built. The town prospered due to international trade. Aleppo's suq, or rather its hustle and bustle, is still among the most impressive in the Orient today. And it was the never-ending stream of trading caravans which made the two excavation sites Ebla and Ugarit, in the vicinity of the city, so important in the 2^nd millennium B.C.

Aleppo, eine Stadt im Norden Syriens, gehört zu jenen Orten, die seit Urzeiten besiedelt waren. Archäologische Funde weisen weit in die Steinzeit zurück. Seine Blütezeiten erlebte Aleppo im 2. Jahrtausend vor Christus und in der Zeit der Kreuzritter, im Mittelalter. Damals erhielt die das Stadtbild beherrschende Zitadelle weitgehend ihre heutige Form. Die Stadt verdiente am internationalen Handel. Noch heute zählt der Suq, besser gesagt das Gewirr der Suqs von Aleppo zu den eindruckvollsten des Orients. Auch die beiden nahegelegenen Ausgrabungs-stätten Ebla und Ugarit, die im 2. Jahrtausend vor Christus zu Bedeutung gelangt waren, verdankten ihre Größe den unermüdlichen Handelskarawanen.

This series portrays landscapes, metropoles, sacred sites and monuments, all of which have made a unique contribution to the cultural heritage of mankind. Each episode breathes life into civilizations which thrived in the past ten thousand years, some of them then vanishing without a trace into the shadows of history. The films describe epochs whose legacy lingers in the perceptions and ideas of our own age, and cult sites which have managed to preserve their religious and cultural power up to the present day.