PALMYRA, SYRIA — (CNN) For nearly 2,000 years — back to the days when Christ walked the earth — the Temple of Bel has been the center of religious life in the Syrian city of Palmyra.
But now, at least part of the temple, the most historically significant temple in the Palmyra, has been destroyed by ISIS, according to a UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is quoting “private sources.”
Syria’s antiquities chief told CNN on Monday that officials were working to confirm the reports with sources in the city. Maamoun Abdulakarim decribed the Temple of Bel as “the most important temple in Syria — and of the most important in the whole Middle East.”
“We are waiting for details on the truth of what occurred, the exact location inside the temple, and the size of the destruction,” Abdulakarim said.
The 1st Century temple, which is dedicated to the ancient “god of gods,” is one of the largest and best-preserved in the region and represents a meeting point between Classical and Eastern architecture, Abdulkarim said.
ISIS, perhaps the most brutal terrorist group to emerge in modern times, has shown a taste for demolishing irreplaceable ancient sites and antiquities. It considers “pre-Islamic religious objects or structures sacrilegious,” wrote Sturt Manning, the chair of Cornell University’s Department of Classics, in an opinion piece for CNN.com.”It seeks to destroy diversity and enforce narrow uniformity. Evidence of a tolerant, diverse past is anathema,” Manning said. “What it fears is memory and knowledge, which it cannot destroy.”
Last week, ISIS published photos of its destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin, the first major structure in the ancient city of Palmya to be destroyed.
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