Citadel Photos

This photo was taken about 25-30km from the citadel, and the centre of Aleppo. If you walked to the ridge in the foreground of the photo and looked over, all of Aleppo would be laid out before you. From this angle, all you see is the high point, The Citadel.

Gate house

Taken from inside the Citadel, the dusty horizon between the walls is the edge of the ‘saucer’ of Aleppo, from where the photo above was taken.

The walls of the Citadel appear to rise up from street level, but there’s a drop of 4 or 5 metres down to the bottom of the ditch that surrounds the fortress.

The only connection to the outside, a narrow (5m wide) bridge from the gatehouse to the main building on the left.

All the sides were once clad in stone, on a 48degree slope. Over the years the locals have pilfered and used the stones in their own building.

The walls of the Citadel appear to rise up from street level, but there’s a drop of 4 or 5 metres down to the bottom of the ditch that surrounds the fortress.

An aperture for firing arrows, or boiling oil, or some of the 400mm diameter stone spheres they had lying around.

An overall plan of the citadel

Sharing a laugh while sketching

Domes on the roof of the bath house. Walls of the dome are about 300mm thick masonry and are penetrated with holes plugged with glass. Dani, Tai and Barney are still drawing,see them in top left of this photo