Not long after the front lines of Syria’s civil war vanished, Areej Miro, an artisan from Damascus, set out with her hiking group for a sixth-century monastery built into the mountains of central Syria.
Under a cloudless blue sky and searing sun this past spring, Miro, 24, and her fellow hikers trekked across a rugged desert landscape – the bright red of their T-shirts providing a stark contrast against the beige dirt around them. They were headed to the ancient monastery of Deir Mar Musa, about 50 miles (80km) north of Damascus.
