The series features  over 170 watercolors and more than 100 drawings created between 1971  and 1973 and exhibited in New York during the same period.  The title refers to Martyrs' Place located at the heart of Beirut's commercial center and named in memory of the independce seeking jornalists and writers who were hanged in 1915-16 during the Ottoman rule.  The area adjoining Place des Martyrs was the site of Beirut's most famous red-light district. It was completely destroyed during the 1975-90 Lebanese Civil War, and removed by the city's reconstruction project following the end of the Civil war in 1992.