| about aleppo | |
Aleppo is a city in northern Syria, capital of the Aleppo Governorate; the Governorate extends around the city for over 16,000 km² and has a population of 4,393,000, making it the largest Governorate in Syria by population. Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world; it knew human settlement since the eleventh millennium B.C. through the residential houses that were discovered in Tell Qaramel.[1] It was known to antiquity as Khalpe, Khalibon, and to the Greeks as Beroea. During the Crusades, and again during the French Mandate, the name Alep was used: "Aleppo" is an Italianised version of this. It occupies a strategic trading point midway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates. Initially, Aleppo was built on a small group of hills surrounding the prominent hill where the castle is erected.[2] The small river Quwēq (قويق) runs through the city.The ancient name of Aleppo, Halab, is of obscure origin. Some have proposed that Halab means 'iron' or 'copper' in Amorite languages since it was a major source of these metals in antiquity. Halaba in Aramaic means white, referring to the color of soil and marble abundant in the area. Another proposed... | |
| | about Mazar of Khwaja Ahmed Yasawi | | Mazar of Khwaja Ahmed Yasawi is an unfinished mausoleum in the city of Türkistan (or Hazrat-e Turkestan), south Kazakhstan. In 2002, it became the first Kazakh patrimony to be recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.The present structure was commissioned in 1389 by Timur to replace a smaller 12th-century mausoleum of a famous Sufi master, Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi (1103–66). Master builders from Persia, led by Khwaja Hosein Shirazi[1], erected a 39-meter-high rectangular building in ganch, i.e., fired brick mixed with mortar and clay, and crowned it with the largest dome ever built in Central Asia. This double dome, decorated with green and golden tiles, measures 18.2 metres in diameter and 28 metres in height.The building, one of the largest for its time, was left unfinished when Tamerlane died in 1405. As subsequent rulers paid little attention to it, the mausoleum has come down to us as one of the best preserved of all Timurid constructions. It contains some burials from the time of the Kazakh Khanate, notably the tomb of Ablai Khan. | |
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