Introduction

Before the war, the density of Aleppo’s Old City with its khans, mosques, shops and thousands of courtyard houses had for the most part been preserved the way it had evolved over the course of centuries. The small alleyways with their windowless walls of the adjoining houses create the desire to look behind the facades, to familiarize yourself with the architecture and the everyday life in the courtyard.

The following descriptions of residential buildings in Banqusa Quarter date back to the 1980s. In subsequent years only minor alterations were made. Though the current war has destroyed some buildings, the overall structure of the quarter with its many courtyard houses seems to have been preserved.

Conducted 1987 to 1989, a research project at the University of Tübingen examined a residential area in the north-eastern part of Aleppo’s old town, which has been inhabited since the early Islamic period. Based on cadastral maps, some 500 buildings with more than 3,000 inhabitants were recorded in their spatial and social structure, and the findings were published.[i]

[i] Gangler, Anette: Ein traditionelles Wohnviertel im Nordosten der Altstadt von Aleppo in Nordsyrien, Tübingen 1993