(CNN)Imagine New York City getting annihilated by airstrikes. Or London getting wiped off the map.
Unless something changes soon, that's the fate awaiting Aleppo, Syria's massive economic and cultural hub.
"Between now and December, if we cannot find a solution, Aleppo will not be there anymore," UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said this week.
Yet more than 1 million people remain, unsure when or where the next bomb or mortar shell will strike.
Here's what their city looks like -- and why they're still there.
What Aleppo looks like now
Aleppo went from a bustling metropolis of more than 2 million people -- about the size of Houston -- to a devastated war zone in five years. Entire blocks of buildings are reduced to rubble.
The city is about 70 square miles. That's almost twice the size of Paris.
Control of the city is heavily fractured, split between the Syrian regime, rebels, Kurds and ISIS.
The regime controls much of western Aleppo; rebels seeking to end President Bashar al-Assad's rule control much of the east.
Who's still there
Hundreds of thousands have fled Aleppo or died from the violence. But many remain -- and not necessarily by choice.
About 1.5 million people live in regime-held parts of Aleppo, according to the United Nations.
The part most devastated by airstrikes, rebel-held eastern Aleppo, has about 250,000-275,000 residents who are trapped by government troops.
Jameel Mustafa Habboush, 13, receives oxygen as he is pulled from rubble after Russian airstrikes on eastern Aleppo.
Jameel Mustafa Habboush, 13, receives oxygen as he is pulled from rubble after Russian airstrikes on eastern Aleppo.
There are "no ways to get out of this city. It's completely under siege," said Abdulraham Almawwas, vice president of the White Helmets, a civil defense volunteer group.
For those wounded by the airstrikes, medical care is hard to come by. Roughly 30 doctors remain in the eastern part of the city -- about 1 doctor for every 10,000 people, said Adham Sahloul, spokesman for the Syrian American Medical Society.
