TheAleppo plateau (Arabic:هضبة حلب[ˈhædˤabætˈħælæb]) is a low, gently undulatingplateau of northernSyria. It lies at the northern end of the junction between theArabian Plate and theAfrican Plate at theDead Sea Rift. The plateau lies mostly in theAleppo Governorate andIdlib Governorate.Aleppo is located in the north-center of the plateau.
The Aleppo plateau lies immediately north of thePalmyra mountain belt. To the east it is bounded by theEuphrates river valley, which separates it from theJazirah plateau. To the west it is bounded by the northern half of theDead Sea Rift, namely theOrontes river valley. TheAintab plateau forms a northern continuation of the plateau that leads to theTaurus Mountains.
The average elevation of the plateau is 400 m. The surface gradually slopes down in north-south and west-east directions. The surface undulates gently with an amplitude of 10–30 m for each wave. The lowlands are covered with combinedPaleozoic andMesozoic sediments that average 4–5 km in thickness over the whole surface.
Starting from the valley of the Euphrates, the terrain rises forming theManbij plain and then sinks again at theDhahab river valley in the east ofAleppo Governorate. The Dhahab drains the highlands north ofBāb and runs in a north-south direction for about 50 km until it drains intoLake Jabboul. West of the Dhahab valley the terrain rises again forming Mount ʻAqīl (Mount Taymar) (534 m) west of Bāb and Mount Ḥaṣṣ (550 m) west of Lake Jabboul. The terrain sinks again forming the valley of RiverQuwēq. The endpoint of Quwēq, the Maṭkh swamp (249 m), is the lowest point in Aleppo Governorate. West of the Quwēq isMount Simeon. South of Mount Simeon are the plains ofIdlib.River ʻIfrīn runs west of Mount Simeon. To the west of River ʻIfrīn the land rises again formingMount Kurd. River ʻIfrīn runs from north to south between Mount Simeon and Mount Kurd and then turns west to the Orontes valley, thus separating Mount Kurd fromMount Ḥārim to the south. Mount Ḥārim is separated fromMount Zāwiya to the south by theRouj plain, which leads to theGhab plain in the Orontes valley. The highlands of the western Aleppo plateau are collectively known as theLimestone Massif.
The southeastern portion of the plateau is an arid steppe that forms the northern tip of theSyrian Desert. The rest of the plateau is generally fertile, especially the northwest. The plateau is generally deforested except for a dispersed forest of about 50 km2 on the eastern slope of Mount Kurd where it faces the plain ofAʻzāz. The main trees in the region areAleppo Pine andoak.
Theisotope composition of the region indicate that there were similarities between the deeperUpper Cretaceousaquifers in both the Aleppo plateau and the Palmyrean mountain zone, but differences with the shallowPaleogene aquifer.[1]
Early–MiddleMiocene intraplatebasalts obtained from the Aleppo plateau contained low abundances ofplatinum-group elements compared toalkali basalts fromHawaii, andmid-ocean ridge basalts.[2] However, the Aleppo Plateau and vicinity had two discrete Miocene volcanic phases, ~ 19–18Ma and ~ 13.5–12 Ma.[3]
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