AMMAN, Jordan

The Mafraq highway leads away from Jordan’s capital city of Amman to the border. On the other side is Syria. No one visits there anymore; to be at the checkpoint now, as a civil war rages in Syria, is a disquieting experience, as if by taking one more step in you would tumble into a vortex towards hell. The flow of people, the terrified citizens who chose — if choice is the right word — to leave their land is one-way only, to a refugee camp in Jordan.