Photos: Oldest Syrian woman shows her ID from 1901

Syrian centenarian Noura Heimish is pictured at her home in the Umm el-Rish village in the countryside of Idlib, a rebel-held province in northwestern Syria.

Syrian woman Noura Heimish holds up her ID card during an interview at her home in the Umm el-Rish village in the countryside of Idlib, a rebel-held province in northwestern Syria.

Syrian centenarian Noura Heimish (seated on a wheelchair-C) poses for a family picture with her descendants, including her great-grand-children, at her home in the Umm el-Rish village in the countryside of Idlib.

Noura Heimish listens to her daughter Khadijeh Shoueib as her grandson Abdo Nahar clips her nails in the courtyard of her home. Although her ID makes her approximately 120 years old, Noura says she only got any kind of record at the age of 18, such as many during those times, and a neighbour who holds official records of birth confirming she is 120 years old recalls her as a young woman when she held him as a baby.

Growing up orphaned, raised by an uncle, working first as a shepherdess then a midwife to make ends meet, she was an active member of her community and helped her fellow villagers, even having the town mosque built.

Abdo Nahar, the grandson of Syrian centenarian Noura Heimish holds, her hand as he checks on her inside her home.

Noura Heimish listens to her grandson Abdo Nahar as her daughter Khadijeh Shoueib stands next to them in the courtyard of her home.

Currently hearing and vision-impaired, she lives a frugal life alongside her daughter and grandson who care for her, still in Umm el-Rish, where she and her husband, who passed away 60 years ago, have currently around 300 descendants.