Syria Trails › Places

Bab Antakya (Antioch Gate)

باب أنطاكية

The western gate of old Aleppo on the road to Antioch, rebuilt in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, opening onto the covered souqs.

Bab Antakya is the western gate of old Aleppo, named for the road to Antioch. Since Roman times an entrance here led onto the main street running east to the citadel.

The present gate was rebuilt by the Ayyubids in the 13th century and renewed under the Mamluks. It has a bent entrance, forcing anyone entering to turn rather than walk straight in — a common defensive device in Islamic fortifications.

The gate was the city's main gate under Byzantine rule and lost importance gradually in the early Islamic centuries, until the Ayyubid emir An-Nasir Yusuf (ruled 1242–60) rebuilt it on an 11th-century base. It was rebuilt again in the 15th century under the Mamluks, when it regained its role as a main landmark of the old city. Two parallel hexagonal bastions rise above it, its jagged entrance passes under the right-hand bastion for defensive reasons, and it is built of large white stones.

Through it begins the long street lined with the covered souqs, passing the Great Mosque to the foot of the citadel; for centuries it was the entry for caravans from the west and the coast. Part of the Ancient City of Aleppo World Heritage property.

Note: photos may not reflect the site's current condition.

For the visitor

Photos

Photos: Stijn Nieuwendijk — via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY) · Dosseman — via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)