Why it looks like this

Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, and the map shows it: at the centre sits the great Citadel on its mound, with the old city's lanes wrapping around it in rings. The main streets of that old core were the souk itself — roughly thirteen kilometres of covered market lanes, among the longest in the world.

Outside the medieval core, French-era avenues and modern districts run straighter. The old city was listed by UNESCO in 1986; much of it was damaged in the war after 2012 and is slowly being repaired.