Daraya was bombed in September 2015.

A group of young Syrian people have built a secret library, hidden in a basement in Daraya, a city located south of Damascus. Their goal is to save Daraya’s books, as the city is currently under the control of local Islamist groups and has been under siege by Bashar al-Assad’s army for the past three years.Daraya is located near the Mezze military airport, a strategic site for the Assad regime. The city is under the control of Ajnad Al-Sham Islamic Union and the Martyrs of Islam Brigade (Chuhada al-Islam), both Islamist groups working with the rebels of the Free Syrian Army.Constant bombing has halted any kind of cultural activities or schooling, which is why a group of young Syrians decided to create a library, providing locals with a place to read and study. The activists say that that their library contains close to 11,000 books saved from the rubble of destroyed buildings.