In Photos: Destruction of Iconic Monuments at Ancient City of Palmyra

News
By published

Palmyra ruins

Satellite imagery snapped on Dec. 26, 2016, showing the Tetrapylon and Roman theater prior to recent damage in Palmyra.

(Image credit: ASOR CHI / Digital Globe)

Satellite imagery snapped on Dec. 26, 2016, showing the Tetrapylon and Roman theater prior to the recent damage in Palmyra.

[Read the full story on the Palmyra destruction]

Significantly damaged

New destruction of Palmyra has significantly damaged two monuments at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here, the red box denotes the area of new damages, as seen on Jan. 10, 2017.

(Image credit: ASOR CHI / DigitalGlobe)

Images of the same area from January 2017 showed significant damage to two of the site's major monuments, the Tetrapylon and the Roman theater, according to the Cultural Heritage Initiatives (CHI) of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).

New war crime

Satellite images showed significant damage to Palmyra's Tetrapylon and Roman theater in January 2017.

(Image credit: ASOR and DigitalGlobe)

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova called the destruction "a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity."

Tetrapylon

Most of the towering columns of Palmyra's Tetrapylon, shown in the foreground here, are now demolished.

(Image credit: Antomie2013 / Shutterstock.com)

Most of the towering columns of Palmyra's Tetrapylon, shown in the foreground here, are now demolished.

Deliberate destruction

Satellite images showed that this Roman monument called a tetrapylon in Palmyra has been badly damaged.

(Image credit: nikidel / Shutterstock.com)

ASOR researchers say that the monument intentionally destroyed using explosives.

Theater of war

The Roman theater in Palmyra is seen here on Feb. 14, 2010, before the Syrian Civil War broke out.

(Image credit: seb001 / Shutterstock.com)

The Roman theater, where ISIS has conducted several executions, also showed signs of fresh damage.

[Read the full story on the Palmyra destruction]

Megan Gannon
Megan Gannon
Live Science Contributor
Megan has been writing for Live Science and Space.com since 2012. Her interests range from archaeology to space exploration, and she has a bachelor's degree in English and art history from New York University. Megan spent two years as a reporter on the national desk at NewsCore. She has watched dinosaur auctions, witnessed rocket launches, licked ancient pottery sherds in Cyprus and flown in zero gravity. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.