Temple of Bel The Temple of Bel , also known as the Temple of Baal, was an ancient stone ruin located in Palmyra, Syria. The temple, con...
The Temple of Bel , also known as the Temple of Baal, was an ancient stone ruin located in Palmyra, Syria. The temple, consecrated to the Mesopotamian god Bel, worshipped at Palmyra in triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Yarhibol, formed the center of religious life in Palmyra and was dedicated in 32 AD. Its ruins were considered among the best preserved at Palmyra.
The temple ruins were destroyed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in August 2015
2,000 year old Roman Arch de Triumph. Most recent archeological casualty to ISIS
A rich Roman-era trading city, Apamea has been badly looted since the beginning of Syria's civil war, before ISIS appeared. Satellite imagery shows dozens of pits dug across the site; previously unknown Roman mosaics have reportedly been excavated and removed for sale. ISIS is said to take a cut from sales of ancient artifacts, making tens of millions of dollars to fund their operations.
The statue was made from limestone ashlars in the early 1st century AD and measured 3.5 m in height, weighing 15 tonnes. It was an ancient statue of a lion holding a crouching gazelle which adorned the temple of pre-Islamic goddess al-Lāt in Palmyra, Syria.
On 27 June 2015 the statue was demolished by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant after it had captured Palmyra.
The Tower of Elahbel (also known as Tower 13, or Kubbet el 'Arus) was a four-storey sandstone tower tomb near the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. The tower was one of several built outside the city walls of Palmyra, in an area known as the Valley of the Tombs. The tower was important in the history of textiles: fragments of very early Chinese silk yarns, dated to the 1st century AD, were discovered in the tombs at the tower.
After ISIL/ISIS destroyed parts of the temples of Baalshamin and Bel later in 2015, the Tower of Elahbel and several other less well preserved tower tombs were reportedly blown up in August 2015, including the Tower of Iamblichus.
The Monastery of St. Elian is or was a Syrian Catholic monastery near the town of Al-Qaryatayn, on the road to Palmyra, in the Homs Governorate of central Syria. It housed a 5th-century tomb and served as a major pilgrimage site. Parts of the monastery, including the foundations, were 1,500 years old.
Dating from the 14th century, The Tomb of Jonah in Mosul was a "popular place of pilgrimage for people who would come from around the world to see it.
ISIS wired the structure with explosives and reduced it to rubble.
Hatra was an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. Hatra was probably built in the 3rd or 2nd century BC by the Seleucid Empire. On March 7, Kurdish sources reported ISIS had begun the bulldozing of Hatra. UNESCO and ISESCO issued a joint statement saying “With this latest act of barbarism against Hatra, (the IS group) shows the contempt in which it holds the history and heritage of Arab people.”
On 5 March 2015, ISIL started the demolition of Nimrud, an Assyrian city from the 13th century BC. The local palace was bulldozed, while lamassu statues at the gates of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II were smashed. A video showing the destruction of Nimrud was released in April 2015.
On 26 February 2015, ISIL released a video showing the destruction of various ancient artifacts in the Mosul Museum. The affected artefacts originate from the Assyrian era and from the ancient city of Hatra. The video in particular shows the defacement of a granite lamassu statue from the right side of the Nergal Gate by a jackhammer. The statue remained buried until 1941 when heavy rains eroded the soil around the gate and exposed two statues on both sides. Several other defaced items in the museum were claimed to be copies, but this was later rebutted by Iraq's Minister of Culture, Adel Sharshab who said: "Mosul Museum had many ancient artifacts, big and small. None of them were transported to the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Thus, all artifacts destroyed in Mosul are original except for four pieces that were made of gypsum".
In the Syrian city of Ar-Raqqah, ISIL publicly ordered the bulldozing of a colossal ancient Assyrian gateway lion sculpture from the 8th century BC. Originally from the Arslan Tash archaeological site near Aleppo.
The ruins of Nineveh are surrounded by the remains of a massive stone and mudbrick wall dating from about 700 BC. About 12 km in length, the wall system consisted of an ashlar stone retaining wall about 6 metres (20 ft) high surmounted by a mudbrick wall about 10 metres (33 ft) high and 15 metres (49 ft) thick. The stone retaining wall had projecting stone towers spaced about every 18 metres (59 ft). The stone wall and towers were topped by three-step merlons.
Nineveh is an ancient Mesopotamian city located in modern day Iraq; it is on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
The city wall has been destroyed by ISIS as of February, 2015.
The Temple of Baalshamin was an ancient temple in the city of Palmyra, Syria, dedicated to the Canaanite sky deity Baalshamin. The temple's earliest phase dates to the late 2nd century BC; its altar was built in 115 AD, and the temple was substantially rebuilt in 131 AD. In 1980, UNESCO designated the temple as a World Heritage Site.
On 23 August 2015 (or earlier in July, according to some reports), ISIL militants detonated a large quantity of explosives inside the Temple of Baalshamin, completely destroying the building.
Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian and Roman border city. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in today's Syria. It was conquered in 114 AD and finally captured in 165 AD by the Romans and destroyed after a Sassanian siege in 257 AD. After it was abandoned, it was covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.
Dura-Europos is extremely important for archaeological reasons. As it was abandoned after its conquest in 256–7 AD, nothing was built over it and no later building programs obscured the architectonic features of the ancient city. Its location on the edge of empires made for a co-mingling of cultural traditions, much of which was preserved under the city's ruins. Some remarkable finds have been brought to light, including numerous temples, wall decorations, inscriptions, military equipment, tombs, and even dramatic evidence of the Sassanian siege during the Imperial Roman period which led to the site's abandonment. It has since been severely looted by the Islamic State.
The Imam Dur Mausoleum, not far from the city of Samarra, was a magnificent specimen of medieval Islamic architecture and decoration. It was blown up in October of 2014.
Assur is a city from the Neo-Assyrian Empire in modern-day Iraq. The city was occupied from the mid-3rd millennium BCE (c. 2600–2500 BCE) to the 14th century.
The citadel of Assur was blown up by ISIS in May 2015 using improvised explosive devices.
Bash Tapia Castle, also known as Bashtabiya Castle or Pashtabia Castle, was a 12th-century castle forming part of the city wall of Mosul, Iraq. It was destroyed by ISIS in April 2015.
The Church of St. Ahudemmeh, also known as the Green Church, was a 7th century Church in the city of Tikrit, Iraq. In the 1990s, Saddam Hussein, a resident of Tikrit, funded a restoration of the church building, but in September 2014 it was destroyed by the Islamic State.
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