A Syrian man who bricked up his collection of religious and philosophical books to protect them from the Bashar al-Assad regime has unearthed his hidden library after 15 years. Fearing the texts would be banned or destroyed in late 2011, Amr bin Mustafa Alwan secretly sealed them behind a wall in his Homs home. Upon his recent return, he took a hammer to the masonry and discovered his prized volumes perfectly preserved, alongside important historical commentaries and copies of the Quran. Relieved to find his cherished collection untouched by the civil war, Alwan stated, “I came back after 15 years, thank God everything is still there, including my Quran memorization certificates.”