Palmyra’s temple of Bel survives IS explosion

The outer walls and columns of the 2,000-year-old temple of Bel in the ancient city of Palmyra are said by residents to be still standing in spite of Sunday’s massive explosion in the ruins reported by inhabitants of the modern town of Tadmor and claims that the entire structure had been brought down.

"We have received bad news about the explosion but we have no details," Syrian director of antiquities Maamoun Abdulkarim told The Irish Times by telephone from Damascus.

“We don’t know much damage has been done to the temple. We don’t know the size of the destruction, or the nature of the destruction. The situation is not clear, not like the temple of Baal Shamin [destroyed last week]. We hope the function of the building as a church and a mosque will protect it.”

Islamic State (IS) fighters regard the Greco-Roman temples in the ruins of Palmyra as sites of idolatrous worship. The group has previously destroyed ancient temples, churches, and mosques in both Syria and Iraq.

Dr Abdulkarim said his department does not have access to satellite images of Palmyra that could show the extent of the damage to the Bel temple. Satellite photos revealed the Baal Shamin temple had been brought down by IS sappers.

Antiquity

The grand Bel temple in Palmyra and the massive Baalbek temple in

Lebanon

are two of the greatest structures of antiquity in the Middle East, he said.

Slightly damaged in fighting between Syrian soldiers and insurgents, the Bel – or Baal – temple, the largest of the Greco-Roman structures in Palmyra, is considered the most significant archaeological site in the city, a major trading hub on the Silk Road linking Persia, China and India to the Mediterranean.

IS's destruction of the smaller Baal Shamin temple followed the murder of Khaled al-Asaad (82), a Syrian archaeologist who served as the guardian of Palmyra's antiquities and treasures for half a century. Unesco called it a "war crime".

IS captured Palmyra and Tadmor on May 21st after several days of heavy fighting with Syrian troops. The attacking force of fighters drove in convoys along exposed routes from Deir al-Zor, an IS stronghold, without attracting US-led coalition air strikes which might have stopped the Palmyra assault.

In August the Syrian army launched an operation to retake Palmyra but halted 5km outside the ruins, fearing IS would detonate explosives.

Meanwhile, normally peaceful central Damascus was targeted with mortar and rocket fire on Sunday. A mortar shell struck the capital’s upscale Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood, where many embassies are located, killing four civilians. Fifteen civilians were killed in government aerial bombardment of the major Saudi-backed Islamic Army insurgent bastion in the eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the city.

Seized control

IS fighters claim they seized control from rival jihadis of half the Qadam area south of the capital, the closest IS has come to the city centre. The jihadis have advanced from the Hajar al-Aswad district where they have been based since 2014.

Fighting resumed near the Thala airbase between the Syrian army and the Southern Front alliance, a mainly fundamentalist grouping dominated by al-Qaeda-affiliate Jabhat al Nusra. In June local Druze militiamen helped the Syrian army repel Front fighters attacking the air base.