Web Critic: a Website about Aleppo

The best way to experience Aleppo, other than going there, is to view the pages of this website, Historische Alepposeife, which means Aleppo soap in English. The authors are clearly overweening, but their rambles through the city, its history and its specters is entertaining enough.

This is true for the North Arabian Diary in particular, from 2007, with words and pictures, and occasional ideological quarrels between Germans and Arabs, some news (more frequent updates there wouldn’t hurt), and an overview over Syria’s foreign-language media.

Vrouw Antje comes to Aleppo

When people talk about Historische Alepposeife, they mean HISTORICAL Aleppo soap, which means that it is very old and traditional.

But now that Vrouw Antje has arrived in Aleppo…

Vrouw Antje comes to Aleppo

… things are becoming messy… 

Vrouw Antje: You can look, but you better not touch

And when I say messy, I mean REAL messy:

Something's rotten in the souq

Actually, even worse…

Aleppo spacecakes

It’s THAT messy now!

So mind the Dutch, next time you come to Aleppo. Recent excavations suggest that Antje’s been here for a long time:

Aleppo Ancient Boobmonsta Excavation Site

And when I say for a long time, I mean for a REAL long time!

Related:
(Not) the Queen Diana of the Orient, September 12, 2009
En nu… zit Jesper zelf op de Trekker, June 13, 2008

Olive Oil Production – some European, Syrian, and Turkish statistics

Greece, Italy, Spain, Syria, and Turkey were the top olive oil producing countries in 2001 / 2002 – but with quite some differences between their respective outputs:

Season ending in 2002

Greece   358,500 tons
Italy      656,500 tons
Spain  1,411,500 tons
Syria        92,000 tons
Turkey      65,000 tons

Source: www.olivenoel-info.de

Just to give you an idea as to how volatile the outputs per country were during years from 1999 to 2003, here is a graph of three European countries:

EU Countries Olive Oil Production per Year

In autumn 2007, fires in Greece led to substantial losses in the country’s olive oil production. Given that it takes an olive tree some seven years to grow before it becomes productive, Syrian producers, expecting a record harvest, hoped for rising prices all the same.

Olive Grove northeastern Syria

(The trees are skillfully bred – Jesus had to wait longer than for seven years.)

In 2007, the numbers were as follows:

Greece   394,700 tons
Italy      590,000 tons
Spain  1,326,000 tons
Syria      152,000 tons
Turkey    172,000 tons

Source: Wikipedia (German)

Syria, one of the first sites of olive trees, had increased its production substantially.

In northeastern Syria, the groves are not only in the plains. Places which are less easy to farm are also used, as labour is cheap here, and no half-automated farming is needed. A good share of the oil is used for the production of Aleppo soap. The soap producers in and around the city of Aleppo usually use the second pressing out of the olives.

According to Wikipedia (German), the 2007 ranking list of oil-producing countries (in order of their output, from biggest to smallest, reads Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Portugal, Libya, Palestinean territories (Gaza Strip, West Bank), Argentina, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. Combined, they produced 3,107,493 tons or 99.2% of the global olive oil output. EU countries alone account for 75.8% of global olive oil production.

Aleppo Soap Production

Last time I was writing about Syria was in Summer 2008, and it wasn’t nice. So today, once again something about the old country’s civilisation. It’s economy and its products. About Aleppo soap and its production. Photos from Historische Alepposeife, used with permission.

1) Olive Grove close to the Kurdish Town of Afrin, Northwest of Aleppo.

    

2) Pressing the Olives out, First round.

3) Oil from First press (Edible).

4) Residue of 2nd pressing (the oil of this is commonly used for Aleppo soap).

5) Empty Cauldron, before production.

6) Boiling and stirring the Soap - still without laurel oil added.

7) A Barrel of Soda ashes (also known as Sodium Carbonate) is opened and added.

8) Sodium Carbonate Unpacked.

9) Ready for the Cauldron.

10) Stoker Entrance - to the fuel room for the Cauldron.

11) Soap Cutting Tool (Cooling Floor still Empty).

12) pipe leading from the cauldron to the cooling floor (one storey up).

13) Laurel Oil added to Boiling Soap Paste.

14) The Soap Paste, Pumped here from the Cauldron, is Cooling (see photo 11 and 12) - to be cut later (see photo 11).