Not so long ago home for most of these Syrians was the once-affluent merchant city of Aleppo.
Now it's a refugee camp near the border with Turkey, where temperatures regularly drop below freezing and food is in short supply.
SOUNDBITE: UNIDENTIFIED REFUGEE SAYING (Arabic):
"What can we do? We feel cold and everybody is hungry but what can we do? There's water flowing through my tent."
SOUNDBITE: UNIDENTIFIED REFUGEE SAYING (Arabic):
"We don't have a heater or gas and we can't make a fire because of the rain and all they give us is two loaves of bread for six people."
More than half a million Syrians have fled the spiralling violence in their homeland.
Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey each host more than 130, 000.
Aid workers fear the numbers are going to rise as the conflict escalates around Damascus.