What Happened to Palmyra?

Located north-east of Damascus out in the middle of a desert on the road to Baghdad, Palmyra is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of antiquity. Back in the day, Palmyra was at the "crossroads of several civilizations" that "married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences," according to the UN Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (@UNESCO). The site was "an established caravan oasis when it came under Roman control in the mid-first century AD as part of the Roman province of Syria". The city was forgotten for years until it was rediscovered in the 17th and 18th centuries by travelers - including myself, pictured above, in 1983.

Today, according to a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, the ancient site, next to the modern Syrian city of Tadmur, contains a "grand, colonnaded street" more than a kilometre long intersected with cross streets that link several of the ancient city's monuments. The site also contained Diocletian's Camp, or Roman military camp, an agora, or open square, as well as a theatre.

A Sunni jihadist militant army calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State, (IS), captured Palmyra in in May 2015. In the months that followed, militants rampaged through the city’s museums and ruins, blowing up the 2,000-year-old towering Temple of Ba'al, dedicated to the principal deity of this ancient metropolis. Also leveled were the Temple of Baalshamin, a Semitic god of the heavens, and the Arch of Triumph, an iconic assemblage whose image is stamped on Syria’s 10-pound coin.

The insurgent group was started in the early years of the Iraq War and associated itself with Al-Qaeda in 2004 (who a decade later disassociated itself from ISIL). Outside of the region, practically no one had even heard of the group before they started blowing up parts of Palmyra. Its aim apparently was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni majority regions of Iraq, later expanding this to include Syria. I guess they felt no need to attract tourists, or maintain the respect of the international community.

The ancient city continues to trade hands between the Islamic State and the Russian-backed Syrian Army. In January 2017, according to this article from The Independent, Isis staged mass executions amid the Roman ruins, publicly killing victims (reportedly including teachers) in the Roman theatre. Fortunately, this did not last long. A few months later, in March of this year, the Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, claimed the Syrian army had fully recaptured Palmyra -- for a second time in three months. Under the Syrians, Palmyra had flourished as a UNESCO site of research, preservation, tourism and historical heritage.

Let's hope ISIS does not return to rule over the antiquitous gems of Palmyra. Places like these are too important for all of us, as a landmark of the legacy of human civilization.