The Citadel of Aleppo, one of the oldest castles

The Citadel of Aleppo is one of, if not, the oldest castle ever built in history. Still standing, the fortress was constructed around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC in what is known today as northern Syria. What is most remarkable about this castle is that it still stands relatively intact despite having been conquered many times. Going from the Greeks, to the Byzantium as well as the Ayyubids and the Mamluks it seems that every middle eastern dynasty once wanted to possess it!

 In reality, the fortress we can see today isn’t the one that stood during the 3rd millennium BC.  It was actually built in the 12th century and was constructed as an answer by the Arabian state of Zangids against the threats of the crusades. It was then taken over by the Ayyubids dynasty when the legendary leader Al-Nasir Salah Al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, more commonly known as Saladin, unified the Muslim states against the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This place served as a purely defensive structure and never held any kind of political importance, putting it at the backstage for most of Saladin's reign.

The fortress will become far more important under the reign of Al-Malik Al-Zâhir Ghâzî, son of Saladin. He drastically improved the current fortifications which will become what we can see in our days. It was turned into the site of power for the Ayyubid emir (vassal state), when they were overthrown by the Mamluk in Egypt, losing Cairo and becoming a vassal of this new empire. It will remain the capital of the Ayyubid’s emir for ten years until the empire was broken by the Mongols, who sacked the city on three occasions. It is at this moment that the fortress came under the direct control of the Mamluk, permanently ending the Ayyubid dynasty.

Under the rule of the Ottoman, the Fortress lost a bit of its militaristic focus as the city became a trading hub between Anatolia and the west. But this took an end with the fall of the Safavid dynasty and the end of silk production in Iran. Losing its main source of commerce, the city and the fortress fell into decline and once again entered the backstage of history. The situation wasn’t improved by the opening of the Suez Canal, ending all trade routes going into the region.

Being a trade hub will be the last major event where the fortress was involved up until it became a museum in 2019.