The old centre of Beirut converges on Martyrs' Square, a broad open space between downtown, the port and the eastern neighbourhoods. Once the lively heart of the city, it was completely destroyed in the civil war and remains an awkward patchwork of reconstruction, gravel lots and unfinished projects.
It is still where Beirut comes together when something matters — the 2005 Cedar Revolution and the 2019 protests both filled this space. The statue of the martyrs, riddled with bullet holes from the war, makes a powerful photograph against the Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque rising behind it.