Şêrawa villages still preserve their rich heritage

Although decades have passed, some residents of Şêrawa district of Afrin canton still maintain old buildings that were built long time ago, as well as traditional artifacts used by their forefathers in daily life.

2 October, 2018 02:00

SOLIN RASHID/ŞÊRAWA

When you tour around the outskirts of Şêrawa villages of Afrin canton, you will clearly see ancient houses that have been decades old, but the inhabitants of these villages still maintain many of them despite the evolution of architectural forms.

In al-Ziyara village there are many heritage houses that preserve the ancient architecture that dates back hundreds of years.

Among those houses is a house owned by Juma Muhammad Hassen, one of the seniors in the district. It is said that it has been built more than 100 years ago. Its features include columns and pavilions, which separate between the interconnected rooms, the roof of the house still maintains the wooden columns and the presence of a fire fireplace inside the large room.

While outdoors, there are gutters that emptied rainwater from the roof of the house were hand-carved and were stretched out about half a meter on the wall of the house.

As for its kitchen, it was in form of arc from the top of the dome to the bottom with an internal fireplace where food was prepared. In the courtyard there is a water well and horse and livestock stable.

In view of the importance of the house, which still preserves the aesthetics of its heritage building, two TV Syrian series were filmed, are (Sahil al-Elm and al-Ferari)

Archaeological artifacts preserved by Khadija

In addition to the buildings, the people there still maintain many of the heritage tools used by their ancestors in their daily lives.

Some of them are owned by the citizen Khadija Khalil Qassem, who is rooted to Basouta village and is married in al-Ziyara village.

Khadija maintains a hand-made coffee grinder, straw baskets, a large straw basket where food used to be kept, and jar made of pottery, wheat peck, straw broom, and many agricultural tools made of wood that are not used today.

Khadija says she wants to preserve that heritage so that the future generations will know the difficulty of life in ancient times, where everything was handmade and self-reliance was prevalent at the time.

A.H

ANHA