In a country redefining its national symbols, holidays, historic heroes and school curriculum, what it even means to be Syrian is an open question
https://www.equator.org/articles/from-the-ruins-syria
Rania Abouzeid writes about her recent visit to Syria where she visited Aleppo’s ancient souk, destroyed first by war and then by a 2023 earthquake. The souk is the largest medieval marketplace in the Middle East, with some 13 kilometres of narrow, winding alleys. The entire Old City, parts of which date back to the Bronze…
Rania Abouzeid writes about her recent visit to Syria where she visited Aleppo’s ancient souk, destroyed first by war and then by a 2023 earthquake. The souk is the largest medieval marketplace in the Middle East, with some 13 kilometres of narrow, winding alleys. The entire Old City, parts of which date back to the Bronze Age, is a World Heritage site. In recent years, it became a battleground, she writes. Today, the sons of Aleppo are repairing their souk, with the support of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which has been working there since 2018. More than half a dozen sections have been fully restored, allowing almost 300 shops to reopen. In those parts, crowds of shoppers once again walk along stone floors worn smooth by centuries of footsteps to the sound of merchants trumpeting their wares. But in other parts of the souk, it still looks like the war ended yesterday. “You could barely move here, it was so crowded,” says Saeed, a third-generation stonemason. “It burns my heart. It’s as if they were competing to see who could cause more damage.” The souk, he insisted, “will return, with God’s permission. It must be restored exactly as it was.”