The 13th-century Bab Antakya, the western gate of the old walled city, is all but completely hidden by the swarm of busy workshops surrounding it, but you definitely get a sense of 'entering' as you pass under its great stone portal and through the defensively doglegged vaulted passageway. Once through here you emerge onto Souq Bab Antakya, the bazaar's bustling main thoroughfare, which runs due east to halt abruptly at the foot of the Citadel, some 1.5km away.
Until the development of the New City in the 19th century, this was Aleppo's main street, tracing the route of the decumanus, the principal thoroughfare of the Roman city of Beroia. A great triumphal arch is thought to have stood on the site of Bab Antakya and part of its remains were used in the construction of nearby Mosque of al-Kamiliyya, 200m ahead on your left.
