Acroyoga, carpentry, ballet, and an impromptu art studio are added to the kingdom of water tanks and satellite dishes, as Lebanese people across the country take to their roofs to escape the lockdown in apartments. 

Photographer Joseph Eid spent weeks scaling staircases to see how people have taken over rooftops, and stumbled on a bird’s eye view of a new city from the top, above the shuttered shops and empty streets. Clearly underused rooftops, where only caretakers and electricians would venture, are seeing smatterings of sunbathers, shisha smokers, and restless creative residents, including the striking scenes in Eid’s photographs.

Lebanon's government has ordered the resuming of a national lockdown after the past few days have seen a new rise in infection rates following an easing of restrictions.

Tunisian dancer Sherazade Mami practices on a rooftop in Dekwaneh, a suburb of Beirut.

Lebanese tattoo artist Hady Beydoun works on a wooden sculpture on the rooftop of his building in Jal el-dib, north of Beirut.

Musician Ziad al-Zayyat plays guitar with his flatmate, interior designer Saad Molaeb, in the town of Hadath, north of Beirut.

By the Mediterreanean coast in Halat, north of Beirut, Salah Sido Rcho smokes shisha as he observes his pigeons.

Artist Hayat Nazer draws a painting on the roof of her family's apartment building in the northern coastal city of Tripoli.

Yoga instructors Rabih el-Medawar and Alona Aleksandrova practice acroyoga on their roof in Beirut.

All photos by Joseph Eid, AFP.