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Starting from the valley of the Euphrates, the terrain rises forming the Manbij plain and then sinks again at the Dhahab river valley in the east of Aleppo Governorate. The Dhahab drains the highlands north of Al-Bab and runs in a north-south direction for about 50 km until it drains into Lake 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 River Quwēq. The endpoint of Quwēq, the Maṭkh swamp (249 m), is the lowest point in Aleppo Governorate. West of the Quwēq is Mount Simeon. South of Mount Simeon are the plains of Idlib. Afrin River runs west of Mount Simeon. To the west of River ʻIfrīn the land rises again forming Kurd-Dagh. 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 from Harim mountains to the south. Mount Ḥārim is separated from Zawiya Mountain to the south by the Rouj plain, which leads to the Ghab plain in the Orontes valley. The highlands of the western Aleppo plateau are collectively known as the Limestone Massif.
The southeastern portion of the plateau is an arid steppe that forms the northern tip of the Syrian 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 of Aʻzāz. The main trees in the region are Aleppo Pine and oak.
Early–Middle Miocene intraplate basalts obtained from the Aleppo plateau contained low abundances of Platinum group compared to alkali basalts from Hawaii, and mid-ocean ridge basalts. However, the Aleppo Plateau and vicinity had two discrete Miocene volcanic phases, ~ 19–18 Mega-annum and ~ 13.5–12 Ma.
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