A picture taken on March 14, 2014, shows the Temple of Baal Shamin seen through two Corinthian columns in the ancient oasis city of Palmyra, 215 kilometer northeast of Damascus. — AFP

 

Damascus — Palmyra, the ancient Syrian city that has fallen to the Daesh (the so-called IS) group, has withstood the last 2,000 years with its immaculate temples and colonnaded streets.



Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the “pearl of the desert” is a well-preserved oasis 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Damascus.



Palmyra, which means City of Palms, is known in Syria as Tadmor, or City of Dates. Its name first appeared on a tablet in the 19th century BC as a stopping point for caravans traveling on the Silk Road and between the Gulf and the Mediterranean.



But it was during the Roman Empire — beginning in the first century BC and lasting another 400 years — that Palmyra rose to prominence.



Though surrounded by desert dunes, Palmyra developed into a luxurious metropolis thanks to the trade of spices, perfumes, silk and ivory from the east, and statues and glasswork from Phoenicia.



In the year 129 AD, Roman emperor Hadrian declared Palmyra a “free city” within his empire. During the rest of the century, its famous temples — including the Agora and the temple honoring Bel (Baal) — were built.



Before the arrival of Christianity in the second century, Palmyra worshiped the trinity of the Babylonian deity Bel, as well Yarhibol (the sun) and Aglibol (the moon).



As the Roman Empire faced internal political instability in the third century, Palmyra took the opportunity to declare its independence.



Palmyrans beat back the Romans in the west and Persian forces in the east in a revolt led by Zenobia, who then became queen.



By 270, Zenobia had conquered all of Syria and parts of Egypt, and had arrived at Asia Minor’s doorstep.



But when Roman emperor Aurelian retook the city, the powerful queen was taken back to Rome and Palmyra began to decline in prominence.



Before Syria’s crisis began in March 2011, more than 150,000 tourists visited Palmyra every year, admiring its beautiful statues, over 1,000 columns, and formidable necropolis of over 500 tombs.



Palmyra’s richest residents had constructed and sumptuously decorated these monuments to the dead, some of which have been recently looted.



Palmyra bears scars of Syria’s ongoing war: clashes between armed rebels and government forces in 2013 left collapsed columns and statues in their wake.



Hundreds of statues and artifacts from Palmyra’s museum were transferred out of the city before it fell to the Daesh group, according to Syria’s antiquities chief Mamoun Abdulkarim.

But many others — including massive tombs — could not be moved.



Until the Daesh militants blew up the ancient temple of Baal Shamin on Sunday, most of Palmyra’s famous sites had been left in tact.



There were, however, reports that IS had mined them and the group reportedly destroyed a famous statue of a lion outside the city’s museum.



Cultural heritage a casualty of war



The Daesh (the so-called IS) militants blew up the ancient temple of Baal Shamin in the UNESCO-listed Syrian city of Palmyra on Sunday, the latest in a series of cultural relics to be destroyed by the militant group.



The militants have become notorious for demolishing archaeological treasures since declaring a “caliphate” last year straddling Iraq and Syria.



Following are examples of world cultural heritage targeted by Islamist extremists elsewhere:



Daesh has carried out a campaign of “cultural cleansing,” razing part of ancient Mesopotamia’s relics and looting others to sell valued artifacts on the black market.



In a video released by Daesh on Feb. 26, militants were  shown using sledgehammers to smash statues in the country’s second city Mosul, sparking global outrage.



According to antiquities officials, around 90 objects were destroyed or damaged, most of them originals.



Thousands of books and rare manuscripts were also burned in February in Mosul’s library. In July 2014, IS rigged the Nabi Yunus shrine in the northern city of Mosul — revered by both Muslims and Christians as the tomb of the Prophet Jonah — with explosives and blew it up.



According to the Iraqi government, the Daesh militants on March 5 bulldozed and blew up Nimrud, an ancient Assyrian city south of Mosul.



Several mausoleums have been destroyed by extremists. In August 2012, militants bulldozed part of the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman, close to the center of the Libyan capital.



The fabled desert city of Timbuktu, named as the “City of 333 saints” and listed by UNESCO, was subjected for months to brutal law.



In June 2012, Al-Qaeda-linked militants destroyed 15 of the northern city’s mausoleums, important buildings that date back to the golden age of Timbuktu as an economic, intellectual and spiritual center in the 15th and 16th centuries, UNESCO reported. Reconstruction started in 2014.



In March 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of two 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in the eastern town of Bamiyan.



Hundreds of members of the Taliban from across the country spent more than three weeks demolishing the gigantic statues carved into the side of a cliff. — AFP