1169 Earthquake: Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria

Name: 1169 Earthquake: Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria
Location: Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria

1169 · 80,000 deaths

An earthquake struck Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria in 1169. It killed 80,000 people.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date: 1169
Place: Halab (Aleppo),dimashq (Damascus), Syria
Intensity: 10 on the Modified Mercalli scale
Tsunami: None recorded
Epicenter: 36.200° N, 37.200° E
Country: Syria

The toll

Deaths: 80,000
Damage: Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

1169-1170. Aleppo, totally destroyed, 80,000 killed, intensity IX-X. Antioch, St Peters Cathedral collapsed over the patriarch, intensity IX. Damascus, Laodicea, Sabala, walls and houses collapsed, intensity VIII. Mesopotamia, Laodicea, destructive, intensity VII-VIII. (reference #1222)

June 29, 1169 or 1170, 35.90 N, 36.40 E, Missyaf, Shaizar, Homs, 80,000 missing, intensity IV, magnitude ~7.5 or 7.4. (reference #3733)

1169, Mesopotamia. (reference #1057)

1170, June 29. Syria, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Sicily and the north coast of Africa, intensity II which corresponds to buildings may be unroofed or shattered and some may fall, the ground may be badly cracked in places and small landslips occur. (reference #1055)

1169, September 25 - 1170, September 13 (AH 565). An earthquake shook all the world. Walls and houses collapsed in Damascus, Hims, Fahmyah, Aleppo and Ba'albek. Syria and Mesopotamia suffered greatly during this period. (reference #1098)

1166-1168. Erzincan. An earthquake

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

Significant earthquakes of 1169 The 1100s Recent earthquakes near here

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 419.