Back	At the Ottoman Bank Museum The Voyvoda Street City Tours continue with Aleppo This month at the Voyvoda Street City Tours - organized by the Museum, in collaboration with the Foundation for the Development of Cultural Awareness -professional guide Yıldırım Büktel, takes us on a personal tour of Aleppo, on Wednesday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m. Aleppo's old hans (inns) and houses, in finely decorated wood and stone, most of them left over from Ottoman times, offer the visitor a pleasant journey to the past. "Aleppo is 4000 years old," says Büktel, "and was once a unique crossroads between Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world, and Anatolia and the Arab peninsula. Today it is a bustling city, with streets animated at all hours of the day, narghile cafes, and a traditional covered souk, pungent with the scent of spices and displaying a profusion of multicolored materials, that is a meeting place for bedouins, and civilians alike. For centuries, Syria's doorway to the West, present day Aleppo, brims with a richly diverse ethnic and religious population, yet remains one of the peaceful and tranquil cities of the Middle East." For further information on this free lecture offered by the Ottoman Bank Museum, please call (0212) 292 76 05.