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Warning: This article contains explicit description of torture methods that some readers may find disturbing.

The infamous Saydnaya Prison is currently under the spotlight as Syrian opposition rebels, rescue groups, and local residents search for any remaining inmates trapped in the facility after scores were freed on Sunday and Monday.

Many of those trapped are held in the prison's underground cells, which have been difficult to access due to being locked by secret codes only known by the prison's guards, and due to its sprawling, labyrinth-like complex.

Rescue organisations, chiefly the White Helmets, are also attempting to uncover the prison's hidden chambers in a bid to further expose the prison's abuse against inmates.

Opened in the 1980s around 30 kilometres (approximately 19 miles)Ìýnorth of the capital Damascus during Hafez al-Assad's presidency, Saydnaya became the site of rights abuses, inhumane torture methods and mass executions for years.ÌýMultiple prisoners died preventable deaths, due to medical negligence.

Such atrocities increased dramatically during the Syrian civil war, triggered by the Assad regime's brutal crackdown on opposition activists.

The "human slaughterhouse" as Saydnaya became to be known, first received exposure for its repression and abuse of prisoners in 2008, and then in 2011 after the civil war began.

In 2014, the scale of abuse at the facility was revealed even further through Ceasar, when a coalition of Syrian activists and international lawyers interviewed the defector who worked as a forensic photographer at the facility and photographed thousands of dead detainees.

Caesar's photographs showed signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation, and other forms of torture and killing.

In 2022, the Association of Detainees and the Missing of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) revealed those responsible for atrocities atÌýthe notorious detention centreÌýwere linked to the Syrian regime’s Military Field Court and Syrian Intelligence Branch 227 and Branch 293.

Between September 2011 and December 2015, at least 13,000 Syrians were extrajudicially executed in the facility in "utmost secrecy",Ìý Amnesty International reported. Many of those executed were subsequently buried in mass graves.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said in January 2021 that around 30,000 had been killed by prison forces following regime orders.

Former detainees have described the horror endured in the prison over the years. Among the most harrowing stories is that of Omar al-Shogre, who was arrested aged 17 and spent 10 months behind bars at Saydnaya.

Shogre said prisoners were faced with the reality of "either dying or killing another person", according to comments he made to Amnesty International in 2016.

He said prison guards, wielding knives and ropes, would ask inmates if they had any friends or relatives held at the prison and would give them the option of either killing one or themselves being killed.

He also described that inmates were "living like it is the last five seconds of their lives", as they were never told anything, and were simply "sitting there waiting for punishment".

Among the most cruel torture methods used in the prison was the "flying carpet", which saw inmates strapped face-up on a foldable board, and one end was brought up to the other. Or the "tyre", where people are forced into a vehicle tyre, with their foreheads pressed onto their knees or ankles, and beaten.

Detainees were abused on a constant cycle, whether as a "welcome" to the prison, transiting between detention centres or for not adhering to prison rules, such as cleaning cells and not speaking.

Many of those executed were subject to torture beforehand, including being deprived of food, water, medical care

"In Saydnaya, it felt like the purpose [of torture and beatings] was death, some form of natural selection – to get rid of the weak as soon as they arrive," one former inmate told Amnesty.

Inmates aren’t given fair trials before being imprisoned at the facility and have usually spent time in detention elsewhere before being transferred. Prisoners aren’t entitled to lawyers either. Torture isn’t used to extract information, but rather in a way to humiliate and denigrate the prisoner.

Over the years, Syrian regime authorities have denied the multiple allegations of abuse carried out at the prison. The Assad government would also refuse to provide information concerning those arbitrarily detained, forcing them to be classified as disappeared and thus no longer under the protection of the law.

The prison has been described as being formulated to eliminate dissidents of the Syrian regime, all the while maintaining "a cloak of legal legitimacy".

The complex is comprised of at least four underground floors, where inmates struggle to breathe, due to the lack of ventilation at the facility.

Since Sunday, social media sites have been flooded with videos showing prisoners being freed, their horrific conditions and blatant signs of physical and mental trauma, as well as deceased detainees wrapped in shrouds locked in the prison’s hospital.

Images showing bloodied ropes from which inmates were hanged, bed clamps and iron body presses also emerged, showing some of the many heinous ways Syrian prisoners have been tortured.

Several detainees are visibly malnourished, others are unable to answer basic questions about themselves having only known life in prison for most of their lives.

Rescue operations to free the remaining prisoners are still underway, with the White Helmets at the forefront of the operation. Its head, Raed Al Saleh, posted on X on Monday that the group is still searching for secret doors or an undiscovered basement in case there are any remaining inmates.