Wherever you go in Syria you catch the scent of apple tobacco as narghile smokers are everywhere. From the neighbourhood coffee house to upmarket restaurants, they all have a stock of water pipes.

There is also a man employed purely to look after the pipes: clean, fill and prepare them, deliver to customer ready lighted, and then come round with fresh charcoal as and when needed – they have a nifty little hand-held burner for delivering fresh hot nuggets of charcoal.

We even saw one woman draped in black puffing away in a cafe near the Citadel in Aleppo, and couples can often be seen sharing a pipe.

Narghile shops selling a huge range of pipes as well as every imaginable accessory are also common.

So if you like a pipe, you will feel well at home in Syria.