The key locations of the extensive network of special services, which for decades have tried to brutally suppress opposition movements, can be found in the same central streets of the Syrian capital.
In the basement of the state security headquarters in the city’s Kafr Susa district, there are rows upon rows of small cells – each just two meters by one meter and protected by thick steel doors.
Inside, dark spots mark dirty walls. Detainees could be kept in these cells for months during interrogations and torture.
They are just below street level, on a busy road where thousands of ordinary Syrians pass every day, going about their daily lives just meters from where their compatriots were detained and tortured.
Nearby is the General Directorate of Intelligence, another part of Syria’s former network of spy agencies.
There is a huge amount of records – evidence of how the Assad regime surveilled its citizens.
There are rows upon rows of paper files in the closets, and in some rooms, stacks of notebooks stacked from floor to ceiling.
There is a computer server room nearby. The floors and walls are pristine black and white storage units humming softly.
Electricity was cut off in most of Damascus, but it seems that this site was so important that it had its own power supply.
