Islamic State Blows Up Ancient Temple in Palmyra

The Islamic State group (formerly ISIS) blew up an ancient temple in the historical site of Palmyra (Tadmur) in Syria on Sunday, September 1. Mamoun Abdulkarim, head of Syria's antiquities department, told AFP that "ISIS detonated a large amount of explosives in the Temple of Baal Shamin today, causing extensive damage to the temple." He added that "as a result of this explosion, the main inner rooms of this worship site were destroyed, and the surrounding columns of the temple also collapsed." The ancient Temple of Baal Shamin, built in 17 AD, is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Palmyra, an important ancient site from the Greek and Roman eras, was captured by ISIS on May 21, but the group had inflicted relatively little damage to these artifacts until Sunday. Palmyra, also referred to as the "Pearl of the Desert," is located 210 kilometers northeast of Damascus and was considered one of the country's major tourist attractions before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. The city of Palmyra was historically a stop for caravans traveling along the Silk Road between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean region. This archaeological site, which has over a thousand standing columns and 500 historical tombs, attracted more than 150,000 tourists annually before the civil war. In June, ISIS announced that it had planted explosives under many of Palmyra's historical artifacts and had destroyed an important statue that was housed in the Palmyra Museum. During the capture of Palmyra, ISIS executed hundreds of local residents, including 25 Syrian army soldiers who had been captured by ISIS, who were shot in the ancient amphitheater by child members of ISIS. The news of the destruction of the Temple of Baal Shamin comes after the Islamic State group beheaded a renowned 82-year-old Syrian archaeologist named Khaled Asaad in Palmyra on August 27. According to Mamoun Abdulkarim, the head of Syria's antiquities department, the body of this archaeologist is still hanging from a column in the main square of the two-thousand-year-old city of Palmyra. ISIS has previously destroyed numerous valuable archaeological sites in Iraq. The group considers pre-Islamic statues and temples to be remnants of "idolatry" and views their existence as contrary to Islamic principles. In this context, the Islamic State "dismembered" the body of the Syrian archaeologist, and mass executions of captives occurred in the ancient site of Palmyra. UNESCO has warned about the looting of global cultural heritage by the Islamic State, which is currently "planting mines" in Palmyra.