Clay, stone and kebab skewers used to recreate Syria’s heritage in refugee camp

Syrian refugees living in the Za’atari camp in north-west Jordan are preserving their country’s heritage in miniature, reports the design website Inhabitat. Clay, volcanic stone, wooden kebab skewers and other materials sourced from within the camp are being used to create replicas of sites, many of which have been damaged during the ongoing civil war, including the Roman ruins of Palmyra, the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and the Krak des Chevaliers, a Medieval fortification. The project’s co-ordinator, Ahmad Hariri, is using the models to teach children about their country’s history. Most of the 79,000 refugees living in the camp are from the Da’ara Governorate in south-west Syria, where protests against President Bashar Assad’s regime took place in the early days of the civil war.