The Great Syrian Beach Trip

Heidi Pett’s 1843 Magazine story transports us to the sunny Syrian coast, a place that some Syrians, especially those from the Sunni cities that rose up against the Assad regime, could not freely visit during the war. Pett’s dispatch, alongside vibrant photographs by Gabriel Ferneini, captures families and children enjoying the sea—some for the very first time. Together, Pett’s words and Ferneini’s images hint at a tentative but meaningful new chapter of freedom. (Email registration may be required to view the article.)

Sitting beside him was a younger fighter, Mohammed Tahhan, a 19-year-old who grew up in rebel-held Idlib and then joined the military arm of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, al-Sharaa’s group. He had turned away from my translator and me when we first approached, uncomfortable speaking to two young women. But he slowly warmed up, and eventually insisted on buying us two wilted roses from a child street-hawker. Until he entered Damascus with his triumphant colleagues in December 2024, Tahhan had never seen the capital, let alone the sea. “It felt like coming home,” he said. “All of Syria feels like home now.”