Construction worker makes chance discovery of 1,500-year-old tomb complex
A construction worker has unearthed a 1,500-year-old Byzantine tomb complex in the war-torn province of Idlib, northern Syria.
The discovery occurred in Maarat al-Numan, a town of strategic importance between Aleppo and Damascus, which saw intense conflict during the Syrian civil war.
The area, once a rebel stronghold, was reclaimed by former president Bashar al-Assad 's forces in 2020, leaving many homes looted and demolished.
As residents return to rebuild following the overthrow of Mr al-Assad in 2024, the chance discovery of stone openings led to the unearthing of ancient graves.
Local authorities were promptly alerted, and a team of specialists has been dispatched to inspect and secure the site.
Aboveground, it is a residential neighbourhood with rows of cinder-block buildings, many of them damaged in the war.
Next to one of those buildings, a pit leads down to the openings of two burial chambers, each containing six stone tombs.
The sign of the cross is etched into the top of one stone column.
'Based on the presence of the cross and the pottery and glass pieces that were found, this tomb dates back to the Byzantine era,' said Hassan al-Ismail, director of antiquities in Idlib.
He noted that the discovery adds to an already rich collection of archeological sites in the area.
Idlib "has a third of the monuments of Syria, containing 800 archaeological sites in addition to an ancient city', Mr al-Ismail said.
The Byzantine Empire, which began in the 4th century AD, was a continuation of the Roman empire with its capital in Constantinople – today's Istanbul – and Christianity as its official religion.
Abandoned Byzantine-era settlements called Dead Cities stretch across rocky hills and plains in northwest Syria, their weathered limestone ruins featuring remnants of stone houses, basilicas, tombs and colonnaded streets.
In the past, the owners of sites where archeological ruins were found sometimes covered them up, fearful that their property would be seized to preserve the ruins, said Ghiath Sheikh Diab, a resident of Maarat al-Numan who witnessed the moment when the tomb complex was uncovered.
He said he hoped the new government will fairly compensate property owners in such cases and provide assistance to the displaced people who have returned to the area to find their homes destroyed.
The years of war led to significant damage to Syria's archeological sites, not only from bombing but from looting and unauthorised digging.
Some see in the ruins a sign of hope for economic renewal.
Another local resident, Abed Jaafar, came with his son to explore the newly discovered tombs and take pictures.
'In the old days, a lot of foreign tourists used to come to Maarat just to see the ruins,' he said.
'We need to take care of the antiquities and restore them and return them to the way they were before … and this will help to bring back the tourism and the economy.'
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Inside Syria's ‘human slaughterhouse' prisons where sick guards threw ‘execution parties' & floors were carpet of bodies
IT was one of the most fearsome regimes in the Middle East, ruling Syria with an iron grip and 'disappearing' hundreds of thousands of people during the country's brutal civil war. But President Bashar Al-Assad's dramatic toppling in December last year exposed the true horrors of his 'human slaughterhouse' prisons. 15 15 15 Here detainees were fed from buckets and tortured day and night by sadistic guards who often assassinated them and threw sick 'execution parties' - before disposing of the dead in mass graves. Now a harrowing new BBC documentary, on tonight, delves into what really went on in jails that let Assad keep his grip on power for so long - and hears not only from the inmates detained in them, but the people who ran them. 'When the prisoners heard my name, they would tremble,' said Hussam, a military policeman who worked in the notorious Saydnaya Prison. 'I beat them with all my strength. I showed them no mercy at all.' With the dictator gone, outsiders were free to explore the labyrinth of concrete corridors that only a few months before were filled with the echoing screams of gaunt prisoners. The floors were littered with files and photographs of detainees - some partially burnt in an attempt to cover up the crimes - just part of the meticulous records kept by the state of everyone who passed through the prison walls, their names replaced by a number. Families of the missing and imprisoned are seen in the documentary desperately crawling over rubble hunting for a trace of their loved ones - or at least the truth about what happened to them. Since 2000, dictator Bashar Al-Assad presided over a Syria where dissent was crushed and human rights abuses were rife. Crucial to his hold on power were his security services, who showed little mercy to prisoners accused of threatening the regime. 'As security officers we had the right to kill as we please. We wouldn't be held accountable,' said Colonel Zain, a former Air Force Intelligence officer interviewed on the documentary. Assad torture victims reveal horror of 'burned bodies' & forgetting their names – amid hunt for tyrant's thugs '[Our] mission, like any other agency, was to protect the ruling regime. You have unlimited authority." To them, these were terrorists - and death was the least they deserved. In 2011, protests in Tunisia turned into a call for better human rights across the Middle East and North Africa, a movement called the Arab spring. But when those protests swept into the squares of Syria's capital, Damascus, they were met with a fierce crackdown. Instead of toppling Assad, the country was plunged into a brutal civil war as different factions wrestled for control. During the 13 years of fighting, more than one million people were detained by the regime. Street kidnappings 15 15 15 Shadi Haroun was one of the first organising protests back in 2011, along with his brother Hadi. After dodging shots from snipers on rooftops, he was bundled into a car and taken to what looked like an ordinary house in the suburbs of Damascus. But this was no home. It was an interrogation centre - and Shadi was to get his first taste of the Assad regime's determination to stamp him out. 'The soldier told me to open my mouth,' Shadi recalled. 'He put his gun inside, and said: 'You're going to get tortured to death. So why don't I make it easier and put you to rest?'' Soon after he was transferred to Mezzeh Air Force Intelligence base, one of the regime's most notorious detention sites. Like all those who opposed Assad, Shadi was deemed a terrorist - with torture their chosen method of extracting a confession. 'He called the investigator and said to him, 'This man, flay him and break his bones. Kill him, do whatever you want, but I need his confession on my desk',' said Shadi. 'He told me to lie down. They handcuffed my hands behind my back, and then cuffed my feet and joined my hands and feet together. 'They wrapped me in a blanket, like being inside a pipe. I was sweating and the smell of blood was very strong. I stayed wrapped like that for about a week." Eventually Shadi was released. Undeterred, he began organising protests again, more determined than ever to bring down the regime. Carpet of bodies 15 15 15 Within nine months of the protests, thousands had been arrested, many bundled off the streets like Shadi and taken to secretive locations where they were tortured until they 'confessed'. At least 3,000 had already been killed. Syria's security forces had a network of spies and informants across the country that tracked people like Shadi's every move. 'You could find informants wherever you go,' said Sergeant Omar, an officer in the Air Force Intelligence. 'They could be a taxi driver, they could be a plumber, a mobile phone shop owner, a guy selling cigarettes. 'People were living in fear. This is why we'd say, 'the walls have ears'.' It wasn't long before soldiers pulled up to the house Shadi and his brother were hiding in. Arrested once again, they were taken to the notorious Air Force Intelligence branch in Harasta, on the outskirts of Damascus. Colonel Zain was second in command at the time. 'The place I worked in was very famous for its bloody practices and the number of detainees held there,' he said. 'We would pack 400 detainees in a room that was eight by ten metres. Those who entered would walk over the bodies of the detainees - you couldn't see the floor.' Shadi returned to Harasta with the documentary crew and showed them round the bare walls that once imprisoned him. 'The temperature was around 40 degrees, because it was so crowded,' said Shadi. 'We saw strange cases of disease amongst prisoners, I think due to oxygen deficiency because of overcrowding. These psychotic episodes soon turned into physical symptoms.' 'Torture parties' 15 15 Inside is a changing room, where inmates were stripped, and solitary confinement cells where prisoners would spend months, or even years, locked up. In a neighbouring room, Shadi is reminded of when he was chained up with his brother before being interrogated from pipes on the ceiling. 'We were taken there and hung by our handcuffs from the pipes,' he said. 'It was unbearable - for almost 72 hours, three days, in the same position, without food or drink.' Colonel Zain recalled: 'The interrogation room was right underneath my office. 'Everyone heard the screams. Everyone knew how the interrogations were conducted.' Four months into their detention, a truck pulled up that was normally used to transport meat and they were moved to Saydnaya, a prison with a reputation for brutality that preceded anywhere else in the country. Brainwashed guards treated prisoners like animals, subjecting detainees to continuous beatings. 'We were tortured for hours, and stopped keeping track of time,' recalled Hadi. 'If someone cried during a beating, the beating would get worse." Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party… put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive Intelligence officer Putting his arms up against a door, Shadi said: "They'd bring a cable and suspend us like this. This is the 'Ghost Method'. "They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes - you'd last 30 minutes then you'd pass out." Up to 13,000 prisoners were executed here alone in the first four years of the civil war, according to Amnesty. 'I beat them with all my strength,' said Hussam, a military policeman. 'Our superiors would say, 'Torture them, don't let them sleep at night. Throw them a party… put them in a grave if you want to, bury them alive'. 'When they'd call me to go and torture them, the prisoners would go back to their cells bloody and exhausted.' 'Execution parties' 15 15 Occasionally a prisoner would be dragged out of their cell, finally receiving a respite from the torture. But they were on their way to a secret trial - and death was the usual sentence. 'On Wednesday mornings, we'd have an 'execution party'," Hussam recalled. 'Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner - only an officer could push the chair. 'One time, the chair was pushed, but after 22 minutes he didn't die. So I grabbed him and pulled him downwards, so another guard who was bigger and stronger said, 'Go I will do it.' 'Before he died he said one thing: 'I'm going to tell God what you did'.' The bodies of the dead - be it from execution, torture, or disease - were then taken to military hospitals where their deaths were registered. 'Most of the bodies suffered acute weight loss, resembling a skeleton,' said Kamal, an army nurse. 'Most of them suffered from skin lesions and rashes due to lack of hygiene - and most of them had torture marks." He added: 'It was forbidden to record the cause of death as torture. Even those killed from gunshots were recorded as heart and respiratory failure.' With the bodies piling up, mass graves were the only solution. At least 130 grave sites have been found across Syria so far - but dozens more are believed to be out there, known only to those who dug them out. There is little hope of identification for the thousands dumped there. Many of the guards and officers defected from Assad's regime, joining the rebels or fleeing the country. By 2019, the rebellion had largely been suppressed. Shadi and his brother were released at last, fleeing to exile in Turkey. Then, in December this year, rebel forces overwhelmed Damascus and Assad fled the country and claimed asylum in Russia. With the collapse of the regime, Shadi set to work helping others locate their missing friends and family. But for many there is little hope of ever finding out what really happened to them. 'Everyone, the detainees, and families of the missing, should keep talking about this,' he said. 'All the decision makers who had a role in oppressing the Syrian people escaped, and are now in hiding. 'They've left everybody to pick up the pieces - to deal with what they left behind.' Surviving Syria's Prisons airs tonight on BBC Two at 9pm. 15
Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Syrians describe 'execution parties' and brutal 'Ghost Method' used by torturers in shocking new documentary exposing horrors of Assad's notorious 'slaughterhouse' prisons
A tortured Syrian has revealed how he was tortured using the brutal 'Ghost Method' in a shocking new BBC documentary that exposes the horrors of murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad 's prison. Shadi Haroun, a Syrian dissident arrested in 2011 at the age of 27, was taken back to the detention sites where he was incarcerated for speaking out against the Assad regime. Assad's lackeys also held 'execution parties', former intelligence workers revealed in the documentary, titled 'Surviving Syria 's Prisons'. Shadi took the documentary makers to the cell in the Syrian blacksite he was tortured in. It was completely deserted, following the fall of Assad's regime in December. Shadi was seen slowly picking up chains and telling documentary makers: 'Here is where they would suspend people, on this door, like this. They'd hang people right here with these chains. Putting his hands up against the cell door, he said: 'They'd bring a cable and they'd suspend us like this. This is the Ghost Method. 'You'd be handcuffed here and you'd go down like this. They'd pull us up and we'd be on our toes. You'd last 30 minutes and then you'd pass out, it was impossible to endure. This is what used to happen.' The 'Ghost Method', also known as the Shabeh Method, was reportedly widespread across Syria, with the Atlantic Council detailing in 2016: 'The warden hangs the prisoner from his hands for a period of time that may stretch into days. 'The prisoner often loses his ability to move his hands, dislocates his joints, and could cause damage to his brachial plexus, resulting usually in permanent disability.' The documentary's creators also spoke to members of Assad's intelligence infrastructure, one of whom revealed they would hold weekly 'execution parties.' Hussam, a military police officer going under an alias, said: 'On Wednesday mornings, back when I worked there, we'd have an execution party. 'Our role during executions was to place the rope on the prisoner then step aside. Only an officer can push the chair away. 'One time we put a guy on the rope. [The officer] pushed the chair, the rope tightened, but after 22 minutes he still hadn't died so they told me "Grab him and pull him downwards". 'I grasped the prisoner and pulled him down. He still didn't die, so another guard who's bigger and stronger said "Go, I will do it." 'Before [the prisoner] died he said one thing: "I'm going to tell God what you did". That's all he said.' Colonel 'Zain', who worked in Assad's Air Force intelligence, revealed that he and other members of Assad's security apparatus were shielded from accountability and given a near-total licence to kill. He said: 'As security officers, we had the right to kill as we pleased. We wouldn't be held accountable. The Air Force intelligence had branches and detachments all over Syria. 'Its mission, like any other agency, was to protect the ruling regime especially if there were any signs of dissent within the army or the air force. There was a lot of ambiguity in how we operated. You have unlimited authority. Go anywhere you want, do whatever you please. 'The most important thing is to gather intelligence about threats to the regime. Honestly, this was the dream job. Officers could be tempted with benefits like a house, a car, an office, things like that. The power, the authority to kill and do whatever.' Sergeant 'Omar', an intelligence officer who defected to the rebels a year after the civil war broke out, told the documentary's makers: 'No one can say anything to an intelligence officer. They were the ultimate authority in Syria. If you wrote someone up, they would disappear for six months and nobody would ask why. All it takes is a report.' Shadi also detailed another method of torture he was subjected to, which involved being immobilised in a rug for at least a week. Referring to the prison's warden, he said: 'He called the investigator and said to him: "This man, flay him and break his bones. Kill him, do whatever you want. But I need his confession on my desk". 'He told me to lie down, they handcuffed my hands behind my back and then cuffed my feet. Then they joined my hands and feet together. They wrapped me up in a blanket - [it was] like being inside a pipe. 'People started to mess with me for fun. I was sweating and the smell of blood was very strong. I stayed wrapped like that for about a week.' Shadi said he was brought to the attention of a commander, who ordered him to stop protesting before he was released. 'After my release, I was thin and very weak. My mother was upset about what happened to me', he grimly said.
The Independent
9 hours ago
- The Independent
1,500-year-old Byzantine tomb complex discovered under Syrian war ruins
A construction worker has unearthed a 1,500-year-old Byzantine tomb complex in the war-torn province of Idlib, northern Syria. The discovery occurred in Maarat al-Numan, a town of strategic importance between Aleppo and Damascus, which saw intense conflict during the Syrian civil war. The area, once a rebel stronghold, was reclaimed by former president Bashar al-Assad 's forces in 2020, leaving many homes looted and demolished. As residents return to rebuild following the overthrow of Mr al-Assad in 2024, the chance discovery of stone openings led to the unearthing of ancient graves. Local authorities were promptly alerted, and a team of specialists has been dispatched to inspect and secure the site. Aboveground, it is a residential neighbourhood with rows of cinder-block buildings, many of them damaged in the war. Next to one of those buildings, a pit leads down to the openings of two burial chambers, each containing six stone tombs. The sign of the cross is etched into the top of one stone column. 'Based on the presence of the cross and the pottery and glass pieces that were found, this tomb dates back to the Byzantine era,' said Hassan al-Ismail, director of antiquities in Idlib. He noted that the discovery adds to an already rich collection of archeological sites in the area. Idlib "has a third of the monuments of Syria, containing 800 archaeological sites in addition to an ancient city', Mr al-Ismail said. The Byzantine Empire, which began in the 4th century AD, was a continuation of the Roman empire with its capital in Constantinople – today's Istanbul – and Christianity as its official religion. Abandoned Byzantine-era settlements called Dead Cities stretch across rocky hills and plains in northwest Syria, their weathered limestone ruins featuring remnants of stone houses, basilicas, tombs and colonnaded streets. In the past, the owners of sites where archeological ruins were found sometimes covered them up, fearful that their property would be seized to preserve the ruins, said Ghiath Sheikh Diab, a resident of Maarat al-Numan who witnessed the moment when the tomb complex was uncovered. He said he hoped the new government will fairly compensate property owners in such cases and provide assistance to the displaced people who have returned to the area to find their homes destroyed. The years of war led to significant damage to Syria's archeological sites, not only from bombing but from looting and unauthorised digging. Some see in the ruins a sign of hope for economic renewal. Another local resident, Abed Jaafar, came with his son to explore the newly discovered tombs and take pictures. 'In the old days, a lot of foreign tourists used to come to Maarat just to see the ruins,' he said. 'We need to take care of the antiquities and restore them and return them to the way they were before … and this will help to bring back the tourism and the economy.'
