well-preserved in the old part of the city. The famous laurel soap of Aleppo is considered to be the world's first hard soap
Construction
Aleppo is one of the fastest-growing cities in Syria and the Middle East. Many villagers and inhabitants of other Syrian districts are migrating to Aleppo in an effort to find better job opportunities, a fact that always increases population pressure, with a growing demand for new residential capacity. New districts and residential communities have been built in the suburbs of Aleppo, many of them are still under construction as of 2010.
Two major construction projects are scheduled in Aleppo: the "Old City Revival" project and the "Reopening of the stream bed of Quweiq River".
• The Old City revival project completed its first phase by the end of 2008, and the second phase started in early 2010. The purpose of the project is the preservation of the old city of Aleppo with its souqs and khans, and restoration of the narrow alleys of the old city and the roads around the citadel.
• The restoration of Quweiq River is directed towards the revival of the flow of the Quweiq River, demolishing both the artificial cover of the stream bed and the reinforcement of the stream banks along the river in the city centre. The flow of the river was blocked during the 1960s by the Turks, turning the river into a tiny sewage channel, leading the authorities to cover the stream. In 2006 the flow of pure water was restored through the efforts of the Syrian government, thus granting a new life to the Quweiq River.
Like other major Syrian cities, Aleppo is suffering from the dispersal of informal settlements: almost half of its population (around 1.2 million) is estimated to live in 22 informal settlements of different types
