[custom_adv] usually the kingdom of water tanks and satellite dishes, Lebanon’s rooftops have recently been graced by unlikely scenes of locked-down residents fleeing their flats. [custom_adv] Deprived of rehearsal rooms or workshops by restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, or just needing some extra breathing space, many people have found solace without leaving their buildings. [custom_adv] Several have ventured onto their roofs to escape the lockdown after taking to the streets in recent months as part of nationwide protests against rulers deemed corrupt and inept. [custom_adv] AFP photographer Joseph Eid spent weeks scaling staircases to see how people have taken over underused rooftops, whose only visitors used to be caretakers, plumbers and electricians. [custom_adv] “When confinement started, I soon couldn’t take it anymore, and that’s when I thought of checking out the roof,” said Sherazade Mami, a Tunisian dancer who has been living in Beirut since 2016. [custom_adv] Every day, she walks up to the ninth floor of her building with her water, her mat and her music to stretch and practice. [custom_adv] Like others discovering their rooftops during the lockdown, Mami said her outlook on the city had changed.Eight years ago, Aisha, a Syrian refugee, arrived in Lebanon with her husband and children to escape the horrors of their homeland. They built a small house in Bekaa Valley, and the family finally felt safe. [custom_adv] “There was work for me, my husband, and my kids. We were able to get vegetables for a low price, all the food was affordable,” she says. [custom_adv] But after the Lebanese economy crashed, causing the lira to tumble, along with the coronavirus crisis a few months later, life has become extremely difficult for the family. Lebanese food prices have doubled, and in some cases even tripled. [custom_adv] “After corona there’s no food anymore. You go to get produce but you come back because you can’t afford it.” [custom_adv] Her cousin Basawi, who also lives in the camp, says the situation is so bad that “some children have never seen meat aside from in the butcher’s window”.