In pictures: Syria's beautiful adobe houses are at risk of disappearing forever after war, displacement

Traditional mud-brick houses that the people of northern Syria have built for thousands of years risk disappearing, as 12 years of war have emptied villages and left the buildings crumbling.

Also knowns as "beehive houses", the conical adobe structures are designed to keep cool in the blazing desert sun, while their thick walls also retain warmth in the winter.

"Our village once had 3,000 to 3,500 residents and some 200 mud houses," said Mahmud al-Mheilej, standing beside deserted homes with weeds growing out of the roofs. This is the Umm Amuda Kabira village in Aleppo province - among a handful of places where residents long used to live in the small domed houses, made of mud mixed with brittle hay.

All of the mud-brick homes have been abandoned, Mheilej said, pointing at a tumbledown wall, the remnants of a collapsed house. "There is no one left to take care of the houses, that's why they are decaying," he added. "In time, they will disappear without a trace."

Lebanese architect Fadlallah Dagher said the construction technique "is believed to have originated during the Neolithic period some 8,000 years ago".

A photo shows the ceiling of a traditional mud-brick house known as 'beehive house' in the village of Umm Amuda al-Kabira in Aleppo's eastern countryside, north of Damascus, on August 11, 2023.

Issa Khodr, 58, who took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, is one of the last Syrians with expertise in building the structures, which require regular upkeep.