
Experts call for restoration of Syria's heritage sites, including the Roman ruins at Palmyra
Syria's renowned landmarks, such as the ancient city of Palmyra and the medieval castle of Crac des Chevaliers, still bear the scars of nearly 14 years of war.
Conservationists, however, are optimistic that their historical and cultural significance will eventually draw international visitors back, helping to revitalise the country's economy. Local tourists are already returning, they say.
Palmyra
Palmyra, one of Syria's six UNESCO World Heritage sites, once thrived as a key hub on the ancient Silk Road, linking the Roman and Parthian empires to Asia.
Situated in the Syrian desert, the site is home to remarkable 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins. These historic structures now bear the marks of destruction, with shattered columns and damaged temples.
Before the Syrian uprising in 2011, which spiralled into a bloody civil war, Palmyra was Syria's top tourist destination, drawing around 150,000 visitors each month.
'Palmyra revitalised the steppe and used to be a global tourist magnet,' Ayman Nabu, a researcher and expert in ancient ruins told The Associated Press, explaining that the site was known as the 'Bride of the Desert'.
The capital of an Arab client state under the Roman Empire, Palmyra holds particular significance as the site where Queen Zenobia famously led a brief rebellion in the third century, carving out her own kingdom. However, in more recent history, the site has gained more sinister associations.
Notably, the city was home to Tadmur prison, a notorious detention centre where thousands of political prisoners, including opponents of the Assad regime, were reportedly tortured. When the Islamic State (IS) captured the town, they demolished the prison and later set about destroying Palmyra's iconic monuments, including the temples of Bel and Baalshamin, as well as the Arch of Triumph, seeing them as symbols of idolatry. IS militants also beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, an elderly antiquities scholar who had spent his life overseeing Palmyra's ancient ruins.
Between 2015 and 2017, control of Palmyra shifted between IS and the Syrian army, until it was recaptured by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad, with the backing of Russia and Iranian militias. The surrounding areas were left heavily damaged, and many historical sites, including the 16th-century Fakhr al-Din al-Ma'ani Castle, were repurposed for military use. The castle, for example, served as a barracks for Russian troops.
Researcher and expert Ayman Nabu was among the first to visit Palmyra after the fall of the Assad regime. 'We saw extensive excavation within the tombs,' he recalls. 'The Palmyra museum was in a deplorable state, with missing documents and artifacts – we have no idea what happened to them.'
Nabu also detailed significant looting that occurred during the IS occupation, noting that at the theatre (the Tetrapylon) and other ruins along the main colonnaded street there were many illegal drillings revealing sculptures, as well as theft and smuggling of funerary or tomb-related sculptures.
While seven of the stolen sculptures were recovered and sent to a museum in Idlib, 22 others were smuggled out of Syria and likely ended up in underground markets or private collections.
Inside the city's underground tombs, Islamic verses are scrawled on the walls, while plaster now covers ancient wall paintings, many of which feature mythological scenes reflective of Palmyra's deep cultural connection to the Greco-Roman world.
'Syria has a treasure of ruins,' Nabu said, underscoring the need for urgent preservation efforts to safeguard the country's rich cultural legacy. However, Nabu also noted that Syria's interim administration, led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has decided to wait until after the political transition before creating a strategic plan for restoring the nation's heritage sites.
UNESCO has been remotely supporting the protection of Syrian cultural heritage since 2015 through satellite analyses and documentation. Matthieu Lamarre, a UNESCO representative, acknowledged the agency's limited presence on the ground, noting that the body had provided reports and recommendations to local experts, but no on-site restoration work had been carried out.
Crac des Chevaliers
Some 183 km away, Crac des Chevaliers – a medieval castle built by the Romans and later expanded by the Crusaders – also bears the scars of war. Perched on a hill near Al-Husn, the castle was heavily bombarded during the civil war.
Hazem Hanna, head of the antiquities department at Crac des Chevaliers, pointed to the damage caused by government airstrikes in 2014, which destroyed the castle's central courtyard and decorative columns.
'Relying on the cultural background of Syria's historical sites and their archaeological and historical significance to enthusiasts worldwide, I hope and expect that when the opportunity arises for tourists to visit Syria, we will witness a significant tourism revival,' he said.
While sections of Crac des Chevaliers have been restored after airstrikes and the deadly 2023 7.8-magnitude earthquake, much of the castle remains in ruin. Hanna and Nabu agree that the restoration of Syria's heritage sites will be a long-term project, requiring technical expertise and careful planning.
The Dead Cities
Syria's northwest region is home to more than 700 abandoned Byzantine settlements, collectively known as the Dead Cities. These weathered ruins feature remnants of stone houses, basilicas, and colonnaded streets. Though many of the structures are in partial collapse, the intricate carvings and towering church facades persist, amidst long-established olive trees.
Despite the devastation caused by conflict, some of the Dead Cities – which date back to the first century – now shelter displaced Syrians. While some of the ruins have been repurposed for housing and barns, others have fallen prey to looting, with valuable artefacts being stolen and smuggled.
Moustafa Al-Kaddour, a local resident who returned to the Dead Cities after eight years, reflected on his childhood memories, noting that the site was once a place where he would attend school. 'My feelings are indescribable,' he said, after finally returning home.
The Dead Cities were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011 as an open-air museum, Nabu said. Idlib province alone hosts 'over 1,000 heritage sites spanning different time periods — about a third of Syria's total ruins,' he added.
Nabu explained that, in addition to the bombings and airstrikes, looting and unapproved excavation have inflicted considerable damage, with new construction near the ruins being poorly planned and posing a threat to preservation.
The expert added that 'tens of thousands' of looted artefacts remain undocumented. For those that have been recorded, authorities are working with the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums to compile case files for international distribution, with the aim of locating and recovering them.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
In Gaza, Israel promotes anti-Hamas militias linked to criminal networks
Yasser Abu Shabab is a well-known figure in Rafah. In this small city in the southern Gaza Strip, on the border with Egypt and historically poorer than the northern towns of the enclave, he has a reputation as a small-time criminal and drug trafficker. He is also a member of the Abu Shabab clan, which is linked to the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, present on both sides of the border – in the Palestinian enclave as well as in Sinai. Just like Ibrahim al-Organi, an Egyptian businessman promoted to head of a tribal union tasked with securing the country's borders, particularly against the Islamic State group (IS), whose branch long resisted the Egyptian army in northern Sinai. Detained by Hamas security services, Abu Shabab was released amid the chaos of the war that descended on Gaza after the October 7 attack, when the grip of the Palestinian Islamist movement on the enclave began to loosen. Drug trafficking, in a territory quickly plunged into a state of malnutrition, was no longer profitable. Abu Shabab then re-emerged in 2024 in a new role: that of a looter.


France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
'This desire to eliminate Hamas in Gaza will only build a generation of jihadists against Israel'
17:16 06/06/2025 Arms blockade symbolic: 'US will have to take action to pressure Israel to change behaviour in Gaza' Middle East 06/06/2025 French dock workers block shipment of military material for Israel France 06/06/2025 Aid vessel heading to Gaza rescues four Libyan migrants in Mediterranean Sea Middle East 06/06/2025 Israeli PM Netanyahu confirms arming Gaza militia against Hamas Middle East 06/06/2025 Israel targets Hezbollah's drone production in southern Beirut Middle East 05/06/2025 'We protect our society as a whole' when our leaders encourage us to unite against violent rhetoric Americas 04/06/2025 There is no accountability for atrocities against Syrian minorities, analyst says Middle East 04/06/2025 US- and Israeli-backed group pauses food delivery in Gaza after deadly shootings Middle East 04/06/2025 Is Gaza Humanitarian Foundation trying to 'drive entire population of Gaza to Rafa border'? Middle East


Fashion Network
3 days ago
- Fashion Network
Trump tariffs put pressure on Harris Tweed makers and luxury supply chain
Harris Tweed, the centuries-old fabric woven by islanders in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, faces new global headwinds. Trump-era tariffs on wool imports are raising costs for textiles prized by luxury fashion houses worldwide. In December 1957, Reverend Murdoch MacRae travelled from his parish on Lewis and Harris, one of the Outer Hebridean islands off the northwest coast of mainland Scotland, across the Atlantic to confront the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington. At the time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tariffs on woollen imports threatened to trigger an exodus of island workers whose livelihoods depended on producing hand-woven tweed jackets, trousers and caps—garments long cherished by Americans, from Wall Street bankers to the Kennedys and Hollywood actors. MacRae's mission to protect the islanders from US protectionism ultimately succeeded. Yet nearly 70 years later, his achievement is being undermined by the trade policies of another figure with Hebridean roots: Donald Trump. 'Trump might portray himself as a man of Scottish heritage; he might have used the family Bible at his inauguration,' says Iain Martin, a fourth-generation weaver, but 'that man doesn't care. He's out for himself, nobody else.' Martin is one of just 150 weavers of Harris Tweed, a fabric made from coarse, woven wool. It has been his life. He started winding bobbins—a now semi-automated part of the process essential for loading yarn onto the loom—when he was five. Now, at age 57, he weaves about 8,000 meters of tweed each year, in addition to managing a 15-acre farm and caring for 600 sheep. He still uses a loom purchased by his grandfather in 1926, housed in a workshop alongside his own stack of family Bibles, a collection of colourful bobbins and a heavy blanket hand-woven by his grandmother. The distinctive diagonal-patterned Harris Tweed, unique to the Hebrides, has become part of the collateral damage caused by the US president's sweeping tariffs on global trade, measures he defends as necessary to protect American jobs. Though tweed exports are small compared to the £59.3 billion total value of UK goods shipped to the US, the island's crofters and weavers still face the same 10% tariff rate imposed on much larger exporters, even after Trump's deal with the UK government reduced levies for some other sectors. They now compete under the same terms as major companies such as automaker Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, Diageo Plc, the consumer products group, and fashion brand Burberry Group Plc. Islanders warn, as MacRae did seven decades ago, that these tariffs threaten a way of life rooted in the 18th century, on remote islands that today are home to around 26,000 people—most of them living on Lewis and Harris. The US president's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was once one of those islanders. She grew up in Lewis before emigrating to New York at age 17 in 1930. 'A lot of islanders go to work elsewhere and they never return home, but for people like me, crofting, weaving—it's in the blood,' says Martin. 'That's what draws me to keeping these traditions alive.' Nike sparks a tweed renaissance A 1993 British act of Parliament protects the manufacture of Harris Tweed, stipulating that producers must use pure sheep's wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides, weave it by hand at home and finish it in the Western Isles. They then export the fabric to around 55 countries—the US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan are the biggest markets—where designers use it in everything from luxury suits to sneakers and even whisky flasks. The industry has long been sensitive to the whims of American buyers, whose preferences have had an outsized impact on the sector. In the post-war era, purchasing a tailored tweed suit was a rite of passage for many young men. However, when US consumers turned away from wool in favour of lighter fabrics in the 1980s, Hebridean tweed-makers experienced a sharp downturn. Years later, a limited-edition tweed sneaker by Nike Inc. introduced the fabric to a younger audience, sparking a renaissance in the 2000s. The once-derelict Shawbost mill, dating back to the 1920s, was reborn as Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd. in 2007 to capture some of that renewed US interest. Now the largest of the island's three mills and its biggest private-sector employer, the company generated a turnover of around £9 million in 2023, according to company filings. The US remains its top export market. Approximately 1 million meters of the fabric are produced annually, with the Shawbost mill accounting for about 65% of that total and supplying international brands such as Ralph Lauren Corp., Brooks Brothers and Christian Dior SE. Margaret Ann Macleod, chief executive officer of Harris Tweed Hebrides, describes the 10% tariff as 'hugely concerning,' particularly as it comes on top of higher employment taxes in the UK and against a backdrop of slowing global luxury demand. Demand for the fabric also risks being affected by the high levies the Trump administration imposed on European Union exports. Although the tariffs do not directly impact the Hebridean mills, any increase in the final retail price of garments made with Harris Tweed could prompt US clients to reconsider using the fabric. Last week, the US Court of International Trade declared the Trump tariffs illegal. However, a successful appeal by the White House has delayed a final decision, leaving those affected by the measures still awaiting clarity. 'The worst thing for buyers is being unsure,' Macleod says. 'When there are unknown costs that we can't quantify, it can make the difference between them selecting a British heritage textile or not. They may choose to delay that purchase, reduce the quantity or opt out entirely.' About 15% of Harris Tweed Hebrides' annual fabric production is already sold to Asian clients. The mill is now working to strengthen ties with markets such as South Korea—its fastest-growing market—and Japan, which Macleod will visit later this year as part of a British trade delegation. The company is also reviewing its prices—the cloth retails at £55 per meter for individual consumers—in response to the tariffs. Yet quickly pivoting to new markets is not easy for a 'slow fashion' business, where completing an order can take up to three months. The industry must also step up efforts to combat counterfeiting and raise brand awareness in newer markets like China. 'We're not going to offshore production; we legally cannot do that even if we wanted to,' says Calum Iain Maciver, interim chief executive officer of the Harris Tweed Authority, a statutory body responsible for protecting the cloth's reputation. 'Returning manufacturing plants to the USA is Trump's goal, but so many industries are caught up in that. It's quite a blunt instrument to try to solve a domestic American problem; it really is a sledgehammer.' From the sheep to the shop Producing Harris Tweed is a complex, months-long process that begins with bales of blended pure sheep wool sourced from across the UK, not just the Hebrides. Millworkers dye the wool fibres using one of 60 base colours and then spin them to achieve the fabric's rich hues. They weigh and blend different colored wools according to precise recipes created by the mill's designer to produce a wide range of shades. Next, they send the wool through carding—a mechanical combing process that disentangles and mixes the fibers—creating a candy-floss-like yarn in shades ranging from pinkish red to soft brown or earthy green. Workers then spin the yarn to strengthen it, preparing it to be wound onto bobbins. They arrange thousands of warp threads—a term derived from the Old Norse varp, meaning 'the cast of a net'—side by side lengthwise on the fabric. They then separate the threads into parallel strips and wind them onto a large beam. The mill delivers the prepared yarn and a pattern card to one of the island's self-employed weavers. The weaver introduces the weft colours—the horizontal threads woven through the warp—that create the fabric's distinctive zigzag pattern. After weaving, the mill washes, dries, steam-presses and crops the cloth before preparing it for inspection. If the cloth meets quality standards, the mill stamps it with the Orb certification mark of the Harris Tweed Authority (HTA) and readies it for export. This intricate process employs 300 millworkers and weavers, many of whom live in remote villages across the island. The HTA estimates that the sector also indirectly supports another 100 jobs in restaurants, bars and shops, along with about 1,000 registered local artisans who use Harris Tweed fabric to create and sell clothing and small accessories. 'Harris Tweed is literally woven into the community,' says Macleod. 'The economic fortunes of the islanders have always depended on the sector.' Retailers selling Harris Tweed garments, such as Peter Christian—a £10 million British tailoring brand—are already adapting to the new tariff regime. With US customers accounting for nearly 70% of its tweed suit sales, the company offered a 10% discount labelled 'reverse tariffs' in early April and scaled back advertising at the start of 2025 after a slowdown in US sales growth that predated Trump's measures. Tweed also supports the islands' £75 million tourism sector. Stornoway welcomed a record 57,000 cruise ship passengers last year. Many of these visitors tour weavers' workshops, where they learn about crofting and the craftsmanship behind Harris Tweed. They also dine in local restaurants and pubs and purchase Harris Tweed jackets or small souvenirs, such as pouches, key chains and hats. For now, says the HTA's Maciver, lobbying Washington as MacRae did in 1957 would be pointless given the current 'uncertainty and movement' surrounding the tariffs. Miriam Hamilton, 32, a weaver in Crossbost, a picturesque village 10 miles from Stornoway, says she does not plan to lower her prices to offset the higher tariffs for US customers. 'I can't absorb the extra costs,' she says.