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. But Syria's nine-year-old war has whisked away the silkworms from the mulberry trees, complicated silkworm imports, and stemmed production for now. Saud then decided to turn his idle home workshop into a silk museum to celebrate the ancient craft. In his courtyard-turned-museum, Saud held up a handful of glistening white silk cocoons the size of large grapes.

Source: The Star July 25, 2020 03:56 UTC