As you walk through the cold, dark cells of Assad's prisons, the graffiti on the walls cry out. They plead to God and yearn for loved ones. Often mysterious, they preserve fragments of what anonymous men were thinking as they faced torture and death.

Often mysterious, the graffiti preserves fragments of what the anonymous inmates were thinking as they faced torture and death.

A graffiti in Arabic on the wall of a prison cell reads "This time shall pass" in the infamous Palestine Branch detention facility, in Damascus, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025.