The Man Saving Syria's Antiquities

Available for over a year

"The most difficult job in the world - it makes me depressed thinking about everything that has been destroyed". Ma'amoun Abdul-karim is the Director of Antiquities in Syria. From Palmyra to Damascus, he describes the struggle to protect the country's world class archaeological sites and artefacts from militants and looters. A number of objects have been rescued and placed in safe-houses around Syria - but ancient cities like Palmyra, which have been taken over by Islamic State, are now too dangerous to reach. Ryan Gattis - an American writer takes us deep into the ganglands of South Central Los Angeles and racial tensions with his novel All Involved, set in 1992, in the aftermath of the police beating of taxi driver Rodney King. David Lindo - the British "urban birder" whose passion for bird-watching in cities has led him from London to Addis Ababa. Belgian filmmaker Kristof Bilsen gives a unique insight into the lives of some of Kinshasa's public sector workers: Henriette works in a post office that gets no mail; Simon guards a railway station with no trains; and a lieutenant runs a fire station that has no water. (Picture: Sculptures from the ancient city of Palmyra at the National Museum of Damascus. Credit: Getty)