Syria's Aleppo soap joins Unesco's global list of intangible cultural heritage

The UN's cultural organisation added Aleppo's famous soap to its intangible cultural heritage list on Tuesday with Syria's second city again wracked by war. Aleppo soap joins the city's traditional music, Al-Qudoud al-Halabiya, on Unesco's list of intangible cultural heritage, while the city itself - declared a world heritage site in 1986 - was added to the organisation's endangered list in 2013 amid the country's civil war. Makers craft the product using "traditional knowledge and skills", said Unesco, adding they rely on a mix of natural, locally produced ingredients and a drying process that can take up to nine months. Aleppo had been slowly recovering from the wounds inflicted by more than a decade of civil war when Islamist-led rebels captured the city last week in a shock offensive that put forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to flight.