logo
Experts push to restore Syria's war-torn heritage sites, including Roman ruins at Palmyra

Experts push to restore Syria's war-torn heritage sites, including Roman ruins at Palmyra

Experts are returning to Syria's war-ravaged heritage sites, hoping to lay the groundwork for restoring them and reviving tourism, which they say could provide a much-needed boost to the country's decimated economy after nearly 14 years of war.
Once-thriving landmarks like the ancient city of Palmyra and the medieval Crusader castle of Crac des Chevaliers remain scarred by years of conflict, but local tourists are returning to the sites, and conservationists hope their historical and cultural significance will eventually draw international visitors back.
Palmyra
One of Syria's six UNESCO World Heritage sites, Palmyra, was once a key hub to the ancient Silk Road network linking the Roman and Parthian empires to Asia. Located in the Syrian desert, it is renowned for its 2,000-year-old Roman-era ruins. It is now marked by shattered columns and damaged temples.
Before the Syrian uprising that began in 2011 and soon escalated into a brutal civil war, Palmyra was Syria's main tourist destination, attracting around 150,000 visitors monthly, Ayman Nabu, a researcher and expert in ruins told The Associated Press. Dubbed the "Bride of the Desert," he said "Palmyra revitalized the steppe and used to be a global tourist magnet."
The ancient city was the capital of an Arab client state of the Roman Empire that briefly rebelled and carved out its own kingdom in the third century, led by Queen Zenobia.
In more recent times, the area had darker associations. It was home to Tadmur prison, where thousands of opponents of the Assad family's rule in Syria were reportedly tortured. The Islamic State group demolished the prison after capturing the town.
IS militants later destroyed Palmyra's historic temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, viewing them as monuments to idolatry, and beheaded an elderly antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins.
Between 2015 and 2017, control of Palmyra shifted between IS and the Syrian army before Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran-aligned militias, recaptured it. Fakhr al-Din al-Ma'ani Castle, a 16th-century fortress overlooking the city, was repurposed by Russian troops as a military barracks.
Nabu, the researcher, visited Palmyra five days after the fall of the former government.
"We saw extensive excavation within the tombs," he said, noting significant destruction by both IS and Assad government forces. "The (Palmyra) museum was in a deplorable state, with missing documents and artifacts — we have no idea what happened to them."
Inside the city's underground tombs, Islamic verses are scrawled on the walls, while plaster covers wall paintings, some depicting mythological themes that highlight Palmyra's deep cultural ties to the Greco-Roman world.
Crac des Chevaliers
Beyond Palmyra, other historical sites bear the scars of war.
Perched on a hill near the town of Al-Husn, with sweeping views, Crac des Chevaliers, a medieval castle originally built by the Romans and later expanded by the Crusaders, was heavily bombarded during the Syrian civil war.
On a recent day, armed fighters in military uniform roamed the castle grounds alongside local tourists, taking selfies among the ruins.
Hazem Hanna, an architect and head of the antiquities department of Crac des Chevaliers, pointed to the collapsed columns and an entrance staircase obliterated by airstrikes. Damage from government airstrikes in 2014 destroyed much of the central courtyard and the arabesque-adorned columns, Hanna said.
The Dead Cities
In northwest Syria, more than 700 abandoned Byzantine settlements called Dead Cities, stretch across rocky hills and plains, their weathered limestone ruins featuring remnants of stone houses, basilicas, tombs and colonnaded streets. Despite partial collapse, arched doorways, intricate carvings and towering church facades endure, surrounded by olive trees that root deep into history.
Dating back to the first century, these villages once thrived on trade and agriculture. Today, some sites now shelter displaced Syrians, with stone houses repurposed as homes and barns, their walls blackened by fire and smoke. Crumbling structures suffer from poor maintenance and careless repurposing.
Looters have ravaged the ancient sites, Nabu said, leaving gaping holes in search of artifacts. Local visitors carve names and messages into centuries-old walls. Sheep enclosures dot the ruins, plastic debris blending with ancient stone.
Moustafa Al-Kaddour, a local resident, returned after eight years. Touring the ruins with family members he brought from Quneitra.
He said the Assad forces had established a military position in the village, subjecting the ruins to heavy shelling and gunfire. The area was then controlled by rebels, who made the area off-limits to most Syrians and international tourists, unlike Palmyra, which still saw some visitors during the war.
The Dead Cities were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011 as an open-air museum, said Nabu.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Iraq says key Islamic State leader is dead
Iraq says key Islamic State leader is dead

Voice of America

time14-03-2025

  • Voice of America

Iraq says key Islamic State leader is dead

One of the Islamic State terror group's most senior leaders is reportedly dead, killed in what Iraq is describing as a U.S.-supported operation. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani posted on social media Friday that the country's intelligence service "successfully eliminated" IS deputy caliph Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay'i. Sudani did not say when or how al-Rufay'i was killed, calling the death a "significant security achievement." Iraqi special forces, in a subsequent post on the X social media platform, said al-Rufay'i was killed Thursday in an airstrike targeting his location in Iraq's Anbar desert. Officials said the strike was the result of a two-year effort to track his location, with breakthroughs coming in the past six months. The officials also said they arrested seven additional IS members, including two women, in a follow-up operation in Anbar. Intelligence collected at the scene of the airstrike further led to the arrest of another five people in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. Iraqi officials said that al-Rufay'i, also known as Abu Khadija, was the top IS official for Iraq and Syria, and that he also played a key role in the group's external operations. A recent United Nations report, based on intelligence from U.N. member states, said al-Rufay'i ran IS operations across Iraq, Syria, Turkey and other parts of the Middle East. Other U.N. intelligence reports have identified al-Rufay'i as a member of IS' delegated committee, viewed as the terror group's most influential executive body. U.S. officials have yet to comment on the Iraqi claims. Various intelligence estimates put the number of IS fighters across Iraq and Syria at between 1,500 and 3,000, with the majority operating out of Syria. U.S. military officials warned in July of a possible IS resurgence in the region, saying the terror group was on a pace to more than double the number of attacks it had carried out in Iraq and Syria the previous year. More recently, in December, U.S. forces carried out a series of airstrikes against IS in Syria, hitting targets in areas abandoned by counterterror forces loyal to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Despite those operations, intelligence shared by the U.N. indicated IS has been trying to take advantage of the fall of the Assad regime and resulting political turmoil. The U.N. report also said IS "maintained the ability to operate and replace field commanders." Yet while Iraq and Syria are central to IS' founding ideology, there has been a growing consensus among intelligence officials and experts that the terror group no longer sees the Middle East as its base for global operations. Officials, including those from the U.S., have said there is growing confidence that the group is now being led by Abdul Qadir Mumin, who has been based in Somalia, where he rose to prominence as the emir of the group's Somali affiliate, IS-Somalia. An offensive launched by forces in Somalia's Puntland region earlier this month, in part to chase after Mumin, has met with surprising success, pushing IS-Somalia out of some of its key strongholds. But the campaign has yet to find any traces of Mumin or other top IS leaders.

UN urges end to violence in Syria 14 years after Arab Spring protests
UN urges end to violence in Syria 14 years after Arab Spring protests

Voice of America

time14-03-2025

  • Voice of America

UN urges end to violence in Syria 14 years after Arab Spring protests

The U.N. special envoy for Syria is calling for an end to violence and for the protection of civilians, as the country grapples with renewed violence three months after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Geir Pedersen issued his appeal Friday, which is the 14th anniversary of the start of pro-democracy protests of al-Assad that led to more than a decade of civil war. 'What began as a plea for reform was met with staggering brutality, leading to one of the most harrowing conflicts of our time,' Pederson said. 'The conflict exposed the darkest depths of human cruelty. Families continue to mourn the loss of loved ones, communities remain fractured, millions remain uprooted from their homes, and far too many persist in their search for the missing.' The U.N. says the conflict displaced some 12 million people in Syria, including more than 6 million refugees. Assad was ousted in December 2024 but hope for a return to stability has been shaken by deadly violence that began March 6 in Syria's coastal region, where security forces clashed with fighters loyal to the former president, leading to hundreds of deaths, including many civilians. The fighters were members of the country's Alawite minority — the same religious group of which the Assad family is a member. Syria's transitional authorities said their forces in the sect's coastal region near the port city of Latakia came under a calculated attack from Assad loyalists in an attempted insurrection. Pedersen said Friday that recent agreements between Syria's transitional authorities and an armed group, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), 'are a positive reminder of how important it is that Syria comes together in a manner that truly restores its sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.' He called for the creation of a 'credible and inclusive transitional government and legislative body; a constitutional framework and process to draft a new constitution for the long term that is credible and inclusive too; and genuine transitional justice.'

Syrian leader signs constitution putting Islamist group in charge for 5 years
Syrian leader signs constitution putting Islamist group in charge for 5 years

Voice of America

time13-03-2025

  • Voice of America

Syrian leader signs constitution putting Islamist group in charge for 5 years

Syria's interim president on Thursday signed a temporary constitution that leaves the country under Islamist rule for five years during a transitional phase. The country's interim rulers have struggled to exert their authority across much of the country since the Islamist former insurgent group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, led a lightning insurgency that overthrew former leader Bashar al-Assad in December. Former HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa is now the country's interim president — a decision that was announced after a meeting of the armed groups that took part in the offensive against Assad. At the same meeting, the groups agreed to repeal the country's old constitution and said a new one would be drafted. While many were happy to see an end to the Assad family's dictatorial rule of over 50 years in the war-torn country, religious and ethnic minorities have been skeptical of the new Islamist leaders and reluctant to allow Damascus under its new authorities to assert control of their areas. Abdulhamid al-Awak, one of the seven members of the committee al-Sharaa tasked to draft the temporary constitution, told a press conference Thursday that it will maintain some provisions from the previous one, including the stipulation that the head of state must be a Muslim and Islamic law is the main source of jurisprudence. However, al-Awak, a constitutional law expert who teaches at the Mardin Artuklu University in Turkey, also said the temporary constitution includes provisions that enshrine freedom of expression and the press. The constitution will "balance between social security and freedom" during Syria's shaky political situation, he said. A new committee to draft a permanent constitution will be formed, but it is unclear if it will be more inclusive of Syria's political, religious and ethnic groups. Al-Sharaa on Monday reached a landmark pact with the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria, including a ceasefire and a merging of their armed forces with the central government's security agencies. The deal came after government forces and allied groups crushed an insurgency launched last week by gunmen loyal to Assad. Rights groups say that hundreds of civilians — mostly from the Alawite minority sect to which Assad belongs —were killed in retaliatory attacks by factions in the counteroffensive. A key goal of the interim constitution was to give a timeline for the country's political transition out of its interim phase. In December, al-Sharaa said it could take up to three years to rewrite Syria's constitution and up to five years to organize and hold elections. Al-Sharaa appointed a committee to draft the new constitution after Syria held a national dialogue conference last month, which called for announcing a temporary constitution and holding interim parliamentary elections. Critics said the hastily organized conference was not inclusive of Syria's different ethnic and sectarian groups or civil society. The United States and Europe have been hesitant to lift harsh sanctions imposed on Syria during Assad's rule until they are convinced that the new leaders will create an inclusive political system and protect minorities. Al-Sharaa and regional governments have been urging them to reconsider, fearing that the country's crumbling economy could bring further instability.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store