Maher Khayata, a 60-year-old man, climbs a precarious ladder over the destroyed staircase to his home on the rooftop of a shattered shopping compound in the Old City of Aleppo, northern Syria, on Dec. 21, 2017. Khayata is the guardian of a shopping compound. He has spent his life protecting the compound and making sure it stays safe. When the war shattered his life and squashed all into ruins, he remained there, guarding each memory of his with every falling rock in the old city. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)