World’s largest trash mural makes life in Syria a little less awful

Anyone who hasn’t been to Syria in the last few years can’t possibly grasp the full extent of the horrors Syrians have endured, but we do know it has been unspeakably hard. To take the edge off, a handful of artists in Damascus built what the Guinness Book of Records recently confirmed is the world’s largest mural made with trash.

Led by Moaffak Makhoul, six artists spent six months building the wall using whatever recycled materials they could find. Old spark plugs, broken tiles, keys, rusted iron, bicycle wheels, broken mirrors – all were fair game for the colorful mural.

Measuring 2, 362 square feet in total, the largest mural made with recycled materials in the world, the inspiration piece stands just outside of a primary school in the country’s capital.

Although this part of the country has been relatively unscathed in the three year battle that has killed at least 140,000, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and made refugees of two million, no Syrian is untouched.