Place
Homs
The epicentre of the Syrian uprising — destruction still standing in the city centre, a ruined citadel, and the best shawarma Harry says he has ever eaten.
Homs
A city in western Syria, between Damascus and Aleppo, and the place Harry stops on the way north.
Homs was the epicentre of the uprising against the Assad government, and it shows. Destruction is still standing right in the city centre, which Harry says is rare — most cities clear the middle first — and much of the city was flattened.
- The citadel, on the hill above the city, was a significant historical site and was destroyed between 2011 and 2014 in the fighting between government forces and rebels. What’s left is a ruin, and Harry treats it as the symbol of what happened to the country.
- Hotels here are expensive, which is why he pushed on to Aleppo the same day.
- The shawarma is the thing. He calls the one he ate here the biggest and the best he has ever had.
Asked how life is now, after Assad, the people he speaks to say better.
