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418 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
openings are small and rectan-
two colours ; window
gular, sometimes enclosed by an arch, and when near
the ground, stoutly barred with iron ; courtyards are
surrounded by ponderous arcades ; the minarets are
towers, having the same satisfying quality ; so also
have the domes. The vaulted bazaars, said to be the
greatest in the whole East, are of massive stone.
One does not go far in the old portion of the city
without remarking two chief features—the alleys, and
the great commercial khans. The alleys — perhaps
they should be called streets—are not so remarkable
at first sight as the khans, but they tell of ancient
Aleppo and its life like nothing else when you come to
consider them. In this Eastern city, liable to frequent
tumults and violence, retail buying and selling was
done in the bazaars, whose iron-clamped doors could
be shut at any time ; wholesale trade lodged itself in
the commercial khans, each in itself a fortress ; and
the alleys were merely ways of intercommunication.
They are narrow, paved with stone, and enclosed by
high blank walls of squared masonry. Here and there
these pass under buildings by a dark vaulted tunnel
now and then they are pierced by iron-banded doors
and archways opening to Man-yards ; but rarely do
they contain a window. They give the impression
of being deep stone sunken ways along which flow
streams of men in bright colours.
Through the open archway of a khan upon one of
these alleys you get a glimpse of the arcaded courtyard
within, where is always a wonderful play of
light and shadow. Portions of alley and court are
filled with a cool gloom ; but fierce sunlight falls
aslant in sheets and broad shafts, as it were, and
makes great, irregular, straight-sided areas of white
light on paving and wall. For overhead, when you
chance to look up, is a square or strip of deep blue
sky and air saturated with light, and seeming to
palpitate in the blazing sun.
But more impressive perhaps than any other characteristic
of old Aleppo is the feeling of mystery