How art is helping Syrian refugees keep their culture alive

Using only wooden kebab skewers and clay, Mahmoud Hariri was painstakingly putting the finishing touches to a model of Palmyra he had spent months creating in a Zaatari refugee camp workshop. He was unaware that at that moment Isis was advancing on the ancient city.

A prolonged electricity blackout in the sprawling camp in Jordan’s northern desert meant news of Palmyra’s fall would take several days to filter through to the 80,000 refugees living there. But in the months that followed, Mahmoud, 26, watched the destruction of Palmyra’s majestic temples and ancient tombs with asense of outrage and disbelief that was felt around the world.

“Our history is being destroyed, and not just Syrian history but human history. These sites are thousands of years old, and when they’re gone you can’t rebuild them like you can a road or an airport,” he says.