National Museum of Aleppo, Aleppo (must see)

The National Museum of Aleppo is the largest museum in the city of Aleppo, founded in 1931. The majority of the museum's exhibitions are devoted to the archaeology of Syria, with most of the finds coming from archaeological sites of the northern part of the country. After three decades, the building became too small to host the growing number of exhibited items. Therefore, it was decided in 1966 to demolish the old building and replace it with a larger, more modern structure. All historical periods are exhibited in the museum, however the greatest emphasis is put on the Iron Age, while there is a quite big Islamic section. The entrance is a temple gateway with a female sphinx from the Iron Age. The ground floor consists of two main sections: the Section of Prehistoric Culture and the Section of Ancient Syrian Civilizations. The internal courtyard of the museum is the home of huge basaltic statues of ancient Hittite and Roman mythological characters and a big third-century mosaic figure, while in the front courtyard, monuments of Assyrian, Aramaic, Byzantine and Arabic origins are exhibited.