Abdul-Munaf al-Masri stands before a vast, cracked expanse of land in southern Syria, where water once stretched to the horizon.
Scattered stones and patches of dry grass cover what used to be Lake al-Muzayrib, while an abandoned boat rests on hardened soil - a remnant of another time.
A few birds strut slowly across the empty basin, breaking the silence of a place that once teemed with life.
“I don’t like to come here,” Masri says quietly, his eyes fixed on the barren land. “The sight of drought saddens me.”
For more than two decades, Masri worked here as a fisherman. From 1993 until just a few years ago, Lake al-Muzayrib was not just a workplace, but the centre of his life.
