It has been one year to the day since the Assad dynasty’s rule in Syria ended after more than half a century - vanishing, almost overnight, into thin air.

Gone are the men in leather jackets and blank stares stationed on street corners; Bashar al-Assad’s gaze no longer looms from school façades and motorway overpasses.

In their place are new flags, fresh murals to the “martyrs of the revolution”. Syria is finally breathing again.

Yet the last year has been marked by tumultuous lows as well as unprecedented highs as the country struggles through transition.

The date of 8 December 2024 - the day Assad’s rule cracked under a lightning rebel offensive - is now etched into the memory of every Syrian.

On the night he fled, Damascus did not fall the way many expected.

There was no epic last stand, no grinding siege. It was more like a curtain suddenly torn down. And, in an instant, the city was free.

What preceded were anxious nights of rumours: reports of rebels pushing through from the south, tanks slowly swivelling their turrets away from the city.

Then, in the early hours, the word spread: Assad’s convoy had left Damascus. The palace guards had melted away, heralding a new era for the country.

“People were firing guns into the air, dancing, taking photos and crying, I still have to pinch myself to remember it was a real day,” says Damascus resident Basel al-Khateeb.