Shaykh Najjar ( ar, شيخ نجار, also spelled Sheikh Najjar) is an industrial city in northern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, administratively part of the

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the ...

, located 10 kilometers northeast of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

.Aleppo clashes have a high price
. ''Syria Today''. October 2012. Nearby localities include Kafr Saghir to the north,

al-Muslimiyah Al-Muslimiyah ( ar, المسلمية, also spelled Muslimiyeh, Moslemiye, Msalamiyyah or al-Musalmiya), commonly known as Mouslimié, is a village in northern Syria, administratively part of the Mount Simeon District of the Aleppo Governorate, lo ...

to the northwest, Tell Shaghib to the south and Fah to the southeast. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Shaykh Najjar had a population of 2,588 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
. Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Aleppo Governorate.

Industrial city

Shaykh Najjar is a relatively new development and is the closest Syrian industrial center to the border with

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. By 2010–11, there were 1,923 companies operating in the industrial zone. About 40% of the firms inside the city are Turkish-owned. In addition to proximity, Turkish business owners benefit from tariff-free trade agreements between Syria and Turkey as well as the tariff-free exports of Turkish products made in Syria to the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

. Investors that open businesses inside the industrial zone are able to be assigned land and have the documents to proceed operations within 24 hours. Shaykh Najjar is seen as one of the first urban developments built outside the ring roads of Aleppo. According to Anna I. Del Monaco, an Italian researcher of urban landscapes, Shaykh Najjar has the potential of reducing the "proliferation of industrial zones in the fabric inside the ring roads" and would absorb more workers from the countryside of Aleppo. During the ongoing Syrian civil war which began in 2011, clashes between the opposition rebels and government forces have resulted in the destruction of hundreds of businesses in Aleppo, including in Shaykh Najjar. According to a ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

'' report from 4 October 2012, the industrial zone "is now little more than a ghost town where guards try to protect some factories at great risk to their lives." By October 2012, around 20 pharmaceutical plants discontinued production, causing the potential risk of a medicine shortage. By April 2021, 685 establishments had returned to the industrial city.

References

{{Aleppo Governorate, simeon Populated places in Mount Simeon District