The destruction turned everything upside down. The stones found it hard to breathe and the only physically existing escape route was very long and seemed to have no end at first glance. Despite the feeling of uncertainty, I followed this path for a long time. I took the first steps and tried to better understand the characteristics of the place. The walls were thick and high, the floor sloped downward, and I was forced to walk faster. Time also felt faster. Suddenly, everything folded in the opposite direction of time and space. A large portal appeared and led me into a large room where the light was scattered by a wedge-shaped object hitting the middle of the room, and the debris defined its interior. It was unclear to me whether the whole thing was real or not. I approached the pointed end of the wedge, looked around, and could still feel the impact inside me.
I continued on and searched for the exit. At the end of the room was an old staircase that reminded me of home. I climbed up and walked up the stairs. Old memories of checkpoints, secluded hotels, lonely living rooms, yellow-gray Middle Eastern countryside, and shady bars accompanied me. I wanted to get off and rest until the old staircase ended and at the same point, a new staircase with reflective surfaces began and took me in. This one was steeper and therefore shorter, so I quickly found myself inside an immeasurable cubic shape. The walls were made of remaining steel and metal sheets that could be saved from the rubble and assembled in triangular shapes. A delicate structure held the different metal sheets together. Now I stood on the surface of the same wedge-shaped object. Through a large opening directly opposite, I could see the citadel of the city of Aleppo. The citadel is located in the middle of the old town and dates back to the time of the Ayyubids in the 13th century. Aleppo has a very rich history and appeared in sources at the end of the 19th century BC. And through an airspace directly below me and between the outer wall and the wedge, I could look back into the first room where the rubble was. It was a moment of reflection and returning to oneself.
Motivated to go further, I looked in the other direction and saw an endless space. This tapered in the direction of the sky and its interior was supported by a welded steel construction. The structure repeated itself until the end of the room, and in the middle of it, a staircase stretched, at the end of which the light shone through a large opening. I wanted to go to the light and started going up the steps. Time felt slower as I climbed. I reached the opening. My eyes were blinded by the bright light until I could open them and look around. Those who didn't want to give up were all standing there and holding their heads above the clouds.
Qusay Awad and Abdulaziz Alhomsi
