Yousef fed on dry fruits all day until he could make it to the next safe stop, usually one of the monasteries, whose major part was hidden within the mountain. Such creative architecture kept the monks sufficiently unseen to the soldiers that regularly combed the uphill roads. Monasteries were the only shelter, and during those desperate times even monks who had taken the vow of silence and solitude couldn’t remain neutral anymore at the sight of a hungry passenger seeking refuge .