Editing Aleppo (section)

==Economy==

===Trade and industry===
[[File:Aleppo, textile suq market.jpg|left|thumb|Traditional textile and rug markets]]
The main role of the city was as a trading place throughout the history, as it sat at the crossroads of two trade routes and mediated the trade from India, the [[Tigris]] and [[Euphrates]] regions and the route coming from [[Damascus]] in the South, which traced the base of the mountains rather than the rugged seacoast. Although trade was often directed away from the city for political reasons {{Why|date=January 2012}}, it continued to thrive until the Europeans began to use the [[Cape of Good Hope|Cape route]] to India and later to use the route through [[Egypt]] to the [[Red Sea]].

The commercial traditions in Aleppo have deep roots in the history. The Aleppo Chamber of commerce founded in 1885, is one of the oldest chambers in the Middle East and the Arab world. According to many historians, Aleppo was the most developed commercial and industrial city in the [[Ottoman Empire]] after [[Constantinople]] and [[Cairo]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire"/> However the post-Ottoman conditions favored other cities, such as [[Haifa]], whose economy thrived more in the new circumstances. The issue was that the city's hinterland wasn't included in the "customs-free zone" between the newly established [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|British and French mandates]] which hurt the city's economic growth.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Schayegh |first=Cyrus |title=The Middle East and the Making of the Modern World |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-674-98110-2 |location=Cambridge |pages=177}}</ref>
[[File:Aleppo shopping street.jpg|thumb|Markets at Tilel street]]
As the largest urban area in pre-civil war Syria, Aleppo was considered the capital of Syrian industry.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dnnar.com/index.php/markets/13869/6-3-2017-12-4 |title=معرض خان الحرير في حلب عاصمة الصناعة السورية |work=D.N.N شبكة دمشق الإخبارية |access-date=29 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009222521/http://www.dnnar.com/index.php/markets/13869/6-3-2017-12-4 |archive-date=9 October 2017 |url-status=live |last1=قاسم |first1=جمانة }}</ref> The economy of the city was mainly driven by textiles, chemicals, pharmaceutics, agro-processing industries, electrical commodities, alcoholic beverages, engineering and tourism. It occupied a dominant position in the country's manufacturing output, with a share of more than 50% of manufacturing employment, and an even greater export share.<ref>Madinatuna:Aleppo City Development Strategy [http://madinatuna.com/en/economy Economy Syria] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505211720/http://madinatuna.com/en/economy |date=5 May 2010 }}</ref>
[[File:Tilel Street, Aleppo (4).jpg|thumb|upright|Tilel street]]

Possessing the most developed commercial and industrial plants in Syria, Aleppo is a major centre for manufacturing precious metals and stones.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aliqtisadi.com/index.php?mode=article&id=23863 |title=Gold in Syria |publisher=aliqtisadi.com |access-date=29 August 2013 |archive-date=19 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819004954/https://aliqtisadi.com/?mode=article&id=23863 |url-status=live }}</ref> The annual amount of the processed gold produced in Aleppo is around 8.5 tonnes, making up to 40% of the entire manufactured gold in Syria.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.syriasteps.com/?d=128&id=42162 |title=Aleppo gold market |publisher=Syria Steps |access-date=29 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408215618/http://www.syriasteps.com/?d=128&id=42162 |archive-date=8 April 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The industrial city of Aleppo in [[Shaykh Najjar|Sheikh Najjar]] district is one of the largest in Syria and the region. Occupying an area of {{cvt|4412|ha|acre}} in the north-eastern suburbs of Aleppo, the total investments in the city counted more than US$3.4&nbsp;billion during 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aksalser.com/?page=view_news&id=5ace559cb86c8b34f1e024e479b11815&ar=17773089 |title=155 billion Syrian Pounds invested in Aleppo Industrial City (in Arabic) |publisher=Aksalser.com |access-date=11 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303110557/http://www.aksalser.com/?page=view_news&id=5ace559cb86c8b34f1e024e479b11815&ar=17773089 |archive-date=3 March 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> Still under development, it is envisaged to open hotels, exhibition centres and other facilities within the industrial city.

In July 2022, the Aleppo Thermal Power Plant, which generates 200 megawatts of electricity for the city and its surroundings, was put into partial operation after restoration.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://sana.sy/en/?p=277369 |title=In the presence of President al-Assad… the fifth generating set in Aleppo Thermal Power Plant kicks off after rehabilitating it |author=Ibrahim Shaza |publisher=SANA |date=8 July 2022 |access-date=10 July 2022 |archive-date=10 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710012512/http://sana.sy/en/?p=277369 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The old traditional crafts are well-preserved in the old part of the city. The famous laurel [[Aleppo soap|soap of Aleppo]] is considered to be the world's first hard soap.<ref>Aleppo Soap [http://www.ursoap.com/pages/history_page.htm Soap History] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100826235621/http://www.ursoap.com/pages/history_page.htm |date=26 August 2010}}</ref>

===Construction===
[[File:AleppoCitadel.jpg|thumb|The restored square of the citadel]]
In the 2000s, Aleppo was one of the fastest-growing cities in Syria and the Middle East.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Report Syria 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDz9juos_tkC&pg=PA195 |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford Business Group |isbn=978-1-907065-34-7 |page=195 |access-date=19 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029010342/https://books.google.com/books?id=oDz9juos_tkC&pg=PA195 |archive-date=29 October 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> Many villagers and inhabitants of other Syrian districts are migrating to Aleppo in an effort to find better job opportunities, a fact that always increases population pressure, with a growing demand for new residential capacity. New districts and residential communities have been built in the suburbs of Aleppo, many of them were still under construction {{As of|2010|lc=on}}.

Two major construction projects are scheduled in Aleppo: the "Old City Revival" project and the "Reopening of the stream bed of Queiq River":
*The Old City revival project completed its first phase by the end of 2008, and the second phase started in early 2010. The purpose of the project is the preservation of the old city of Aleppo with its souqs and khans, and restoration of the narrow alleys of the old city and the roads around the citadel.
*The restoration of [[Queiq River]] is directed towards the revival of the flow of the river, demolishing both the artificial cover of the stream bed and the reinforcement of the stream banks along the river in the city centre. The flow of the river was blocked during the 1960s by the Turks, turning the river into a tiny sewage channel, something that led the authorities to cover the stream during the 1970s. In 2008 the flow of pure water was restored through the efforts of the Syrian government, granting a new life to the Quweiq River.<ref name="station">{{Cite news |url=https://sana.sy/en/?p=277384 |title=President al-Assad inaugurates Tal Hasel water pumping plant, Aleppo |author=Shaza Qreima |publisher=SANA |access-date=10 July 2022 |date=8 July 2022 |archive-date=9 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709184201/http://sana.sy/en/?p=277384 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Like other major Syrian cities, Aleppo is suffering from the dispersal of [[informal settlements]]: almost half of its population (around 1.2&nbsp;million) is estimated to live in 22 informal settlements of different types.<ref>{{cite web |title=Madinatuna, Aleppo Cite Development Strategy: Informal Settlements |url=http://madinatuna.com/en/informals |access-date=14 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505211725/http://madinatuna.com/en/informals |archive-date=5 May 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>