Only the cemetery in Damascus's devastated suburb of Jobar showed signs of life on Friday as residents returned to visit and pray for Eid al-Adha, the first since Bashar al-Assad's fall.
Jawdat al-Qais fought back tears as he knelt at the tomb of his father, who died less than a month ago, AFP said.
"His wish was to be buried in Jobar -- and Jobar was liberated and he was buried here," said Qais, 57.
"We carried out his wish, thank God," he said, adding that "many people haven't been able to be buried in their hometowns."
Once home to around 350,000 people, Jobar was turned into a wasteland due to heavy fighting from the start of Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 with Assad's brutal repression of anti-government protests.
In 2018, an accord between Assad's government and opposition factions allowed fighters and their families to evacuate.
After being forced out, Jobar's residents have returned for Eid al-Adha, the biggest holiday in Islam, during which it is customary to pay respects to the dead.
Among the utter ruin of the district, the call to prayer rose from damaged mosque's minaret as dozens of faithful gathered both inside and out.
Population 'zero'
In the deathly silence, devastated buildings line barely passable roads in Jobar, which is also home to a historic synagogue.
At the cemetery, which was also damaged, residents -- including former fighters in wheelchairs or using crutches -- came together after years of separation, some drinking coffee or eating dates.
"The irony of Jobar is that the cemetery is the only thing bringing us life, bringing us together," Qais said.
Some visitors struggled to find their loved ones' tombs among the overturned headstones.
A few etched names or drew rudimentary signs to help identify them on the next visit.
"I found my mother's tomb intact and I wept," said Jihad Abulmajd, 53.
He said he has visited her grave regularly since Assad's December 8 ouster.
"We find peace here, with our ancestors and relatives," he told AFP.
The day after Assad was toppled, Hamza Idris, 64, and his family returned to Jobar from Idlib in the country's northwest, where they fled in 2018.
He said a definitive return to the ghost town, whose infrastructure has been destroyed, was impossible.
"Jobar's population... is zero," he said after praying in front of the mosque.
"Even the cemetery wasn't spared the bombs," said Idris, who lost three children during the war and was unable to visit their graves until Assad's ouster.
"The town is no longer habitable. It needs to be entirely rebuilt," he said.
