Aleppo’s souks are renowned as some of the most bustling in the Near East. Their 12km of passages are lined by thousands of shops, grouped together according to their trades and offering a huge variety of hand-crafted and mass-produced goods. Among the traders, solidarity wins out over competitiveness. They won’t hesitate to send buyers to another shop on the basis that one good turn deserves another. The souk is not just an array of shops, but a wider commercial entity also incorporating workshops and khans.