Life amid ruins: ancient sites shelter Syria's displaced - in pictures

Ruined towns such as Sarjableh and Babisqa have become a home to families displaced from the southern countryside of Idlib during the war

Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria, which has become a home to more than 50 displaced families. All photos: Reuters

Mohamad Othman, 30, plays with his child at the archaeological site of Sarjableh in Idlib, Syria. All photos: Reuters

Mohamad Othman, 30, remembers going on school trips to ancient archaeological sites in Syria, never imagining one of them would become his home. Mr Othman and his family have been living in a tent amid ancient ruins at Sarjableh near the Turkish border since fleeing for their lives about two and a half years ago during a government offensive in northwestern Syria.

Othman stands next to his tent.

Rocks gathered from the site anchor down their tent, one of several dozen that are sheltering families who have fled their homes during the decade-long Syrian war. Their clothes hang to dry on two lines strung between the tent and an ancient stone portico. Their children clamber over the rocks and balance on walls in this unusual if dangerous playground. "In the summer, we face scorpions, snakes and dust, and all the pressures of life, and in winter the cold. The situation is desperate. There are no health services," Mr Othman said.

The site, an early Christian settlement with ruins dating to the fifth century, has been in demand with the displaced because they do not have to pay to stay there, unlike other areas where landowners charge rent. "Everyone here used to have land that we would farm and we had livelihoods in our villages and did not need anyone. But our fate was to be displaced," Mr Othman said. "We did not leave our land by our own free will to come to an area that has been uninhabited for thousands of years."

A woman collects olive twigs for firewood at the Unesco World Heritage Site of Babisqa, in the northern countryside of Idlib, Syria.

Not far from Sarjableh, in another corner of the northwestern province of Idlib, the ancient site of Babisqa is also providing shelter for those bombed out of their homes. In an earlier phase of the war, rebels used the site as a base, operating from ancients caves hewn from the rock where wiring installed by the opposition fighters can still be seen. Among the 80 or so families living at the site, it is known as 'Kharrab camp', or 'Ruins camp'.

Mahmoud Abu Khalifa, 35, stands inside an ancient cave he uses to store his belongings and raise his sheep, at Babisqa.

Mahmoud Abu Khalifa, 35, a father of seven, stores family possessions and animal feed in an ancient cave hewn out of the rock. He keeps his sheep in a pen amid the stones. "Before being displaced, we had agricultural land and farmed crops and lived from them and everything was great and we had these animals," he said.

Khalid Abu Khalifa, 9, holds a pair of pigeons while playing amid the ancient ruins of Babisqa.

Today "the children live in the ruins and mud," he said. "The situation is very desperate," he said. "Our one demand is to return to our villages."