Documentation and assessment of war induced damage on historic buildings in Aleppo

ABSTRACT Aleppo, the biggest city of Syria, whose historical center is a world heritage site, has been suffering a savage war caused a huge destruction of its monuments for eight years. Many monuments, forming the urban structure of the old city, were destroyed either directly by actions of war or indirectly by the effects of ground shaking induced by explosions. In 2011, a documentation campaign was implemented by the students of Architecture Faculty, Aleppo University, and the caravansaries of the old city were documented. A strong explosion on March 4th, 2015 in the old city triggered many accelerometers in the region and felt as an earthquake. Recently, with the beginning of the restoration works, an evaluation is necessary for better understanding of the causes of damage, and best intervention approaches in these monuments. In the study, two historical caravansaries were presented and interrelated with the corresponding ground motion. Then, the seismicity of Aleppo is discussed; equivalent explosion-induced seismic effects were estimated and compared with the earthquakes. It is aimed to examine the possibility of applying the analogy with seismic forces on historic buildings to understand the damage caused by war explosions, on the purpose of future intervention for safeguarding the monuments.