The site is occupied since ca 5000 BC. It was mentioned in cuneiform tablets from Ebla and Mari, and a recently excavated Hadad temple dates to the 24th century BC. According to Muslim and Jewish tradition, the biblical patriarch Abraham rested on the hill-fortress during his journey from Ur to Canaan. He supposedly grazed his flocks and milked his cows there (Halab ash-Shaab, hence the city's Arabic name). The "Abraham Stone" is said to be a memorial of his visit. During the second millennium BC, site was a key city of the Amorite state, who referred to it as Ḥalab. The Hittites, a contemporary Anatolian Empire within the region, referred Aleppo as Ḥalpa or Ḥalpu in their inscriptions. This indicates the name was already well-established.
Sources:
- Getzel M. Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa, University of California Pres 2006, pp. 153-155
- Trevor Bryce, Ancient Syria: A Three Thousand Year History, OUP Oxford 2014, p. 111
