Aleppo, though a thriving modern city, retains at its heart a traditional suq or bazar which dates back to the Arab Middle Ages and is still one of the active in the Middle East. Above the town rears the medieval Citadel that has begun to yield evidence of civilisations going back at least five millennia. On it still stand a series of palaces, mosques and defensive works that reflect Aleppo’s role as a stronghold of the Muslim resistance to the Crusades. The Citadel is entered by a magnificent gateway perhaps the most powerful evocation of the Arab architecture of the era, rivalled only by the city’s extraordinary collection of mosques and teaching institutions (madrasas) which survive virtually intact, still serving their original functions.