We first visited Aleppo's souk quite early in the morning, bought tea and sat on a bench to drink it. The surrounding shops were all locked with metal roll-over shutters. A man came to unlock the shop opposite where we sat and revealed it was a fabric shop stacked with heavy rolls of furnishing material.

This is what it looked like when he first raised the shutters. He set to, hefting heavy rolls of fabric and, within ten minutes, he vaulted over the now-cleared counter and posed for our second photo.

And he must put it all away again each evening. Hard work being a fabric seller in Aleppo's souk.

In Fethiye we have a Turkish friend who runs a carpet shop, and whose assistant frequently complains about hanging up ten or so carpets outside the shop in the morning, followed by dragging out a stand full of scarves.