A Glims of Aleppo Soap History
Aleppo Soap originated from the Syrian city of Aleppo, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world which is known for being the endpoint of the famous Silk Road that bridged eastern and western civilisations.
The city souq was divided into shops and warehouses tenented by English, French, Turkish and Syrian merchants who traded goods interchangeably between Europe, Middle East, and Asia.
For centuries Aleppo has developed its own schools of culinary, music, spiritual disciplines, textile, and soap making that was passed from generations.
Thanks to its virtues, Aleppo Soap was first brought to Europe by missionaries who modified the original recipe adapting to their own resources and ingredients.
Aleppian soap makers has kept the traditional legacy which remains unique due to the soap benefits thanks to its local ingredients, preparation method, and drying process.
In brief, Aleppo Soap is a solid bar soap made from olive oil, laurel oil, lye and water and produced by the tradition hot saponification process where all the ingredients are mixed and heated up, poured into the molding area, then cut and piled up to continue the drying procees in Aleppian cellars which takes approximately 6 to 7 months before use.
During the last two decades, Aleppo Soap has gained international recognition and today Aleppo Soap is known and used for its cleansing, and skin nurturing and healing properties.
The traditional Aleppo Soap recipe is based on olive and bay laurel oils where laurel oil can vary from 12% to 35%. Alesapo offers both variations as higher concentration of laurel oil intensifies laurel properties, perfume and soap moisturisation effect.
© Alesapo
