Photo taken on June 21, 2021 shows the private museum of Shadi Saleem, an antique collector who managed to open his own museum to showcase the personal collections in Sweida province in southern Syria.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Photo taken on June 21, 2021 shows the private museum of Shadi Saleem.(Photo: Xinhua)

 

Photo taken on June 21, 2021 shows the private museum of Shadi Saleem. (Photo: Xinhua)

 

Photo taken on June 21, 2021 shows the private museum of Shadi Saleem.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Shadi Saleem was finally able to see his dream come true when a small museum exhibiting his two decades' collection was unveiled.

Located in Sweida Province in southern Syria, the museum was built by Saleem next to his house and connected to it by a backdoor.

Upon entering the museum, there is a small hall that features a giant old stone pot surrounded by ancient agricultural tools and wooden wheels, which was once usd to herd livestock on farms.

Stepping into the main and only hall, statues of a man and a woman in traditional Sweida dress are placed left and right to greet visitors. Both of them hold coffee cups, a gesture of generosity and welcome in Sweida's culture.

Saleem has collected about 8,000 pieces of antiques, ranging from coins, swords, guns, agricultural implements, to even torture tools from the Ottoman Empire time. He also owns pistols and helmets once used by French soldiers during the French Mandate in Syria.

His oldest pieces, which are made of stone, date back to even 8,000 years ago.

Collecting antiques is Saleem's childhood hobby inherited from his father and grandfather. "It looks as if this hobby runs through the family," he said, adding he knows the history of his every piece.

As a merchant running a successful cloth shop in Sweida, he is able to afford family and buy some pieces every now and then. When his collection has expanded, he had to find a place to display and preserve them. To build the museum, his wife had to sell some of her jewellery.

"I opened this museum during tough times in Syria and my main goal was to preserve the pieces so that they won't be stolen and sold outside Syria," Saleem said.

In his opinion, the war Syria has been going through would deprive the country of its roots and culture, and hence it is necessary to protect the ancestors' legacy.

"We have been subjected to a vicious attack to marginalize the culture and history of this country," Saleem said.

Although he has already achieved his goal, Saleem's passion has never stopped. He wants to have a bigger place for more pieces to be displayed and protected for future generations, as well as for tourists who will one day return to Syria when everything is settled down peacefully.

"When the war in Syria is over, we will surely have tourists come over to know about our heritage and how we lived in the past," he said.