Aleppo's Great Bazaar (in Arabic; suq or souq) as we know it today was rebuilt first by the Egyptian Mamelukes who drove out the Mongols; and then; after 1516; by the Turks who incorporated Aleppo into the Ottoman Empire.

Aleppo; the second city of Syria and quite possibly the longest continually inhabited settlement in the world; is of venerable age. So old; indeed; that its Arabic name; Halab; is first mentioned in Semitic texts of the third millennium BC. Situated in the north-west of the country; just a few kilometres from the Turkish frontier; Aleppo is located at the confluence of several great trade routes and; as a city of commerce; has always been rich.