With silkworms long gone, a Syrian turns his home workshop into a silk museum

Saud handweaving silk threads on a loom at his home workshop in the village of Deir Mama, in central-western Syria. Photos: AFP

In the green hills of Deir Mama in Syria, 65-year-old Mohammed Saud, his wife and three sons have been making silk for decades.

They would raise silkworms in the spring, watching them munch on mulberry tree leaves and slowly build their thick cocoons, before spinning the thread and weaving it into fine cloth.