BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Palmyra in Ruins

Experts take stock of the ancient Syrian city

The temple of Bel in Palmyra before its destruction. James Gordon from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Following the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, archaeologists and residents have begun to return to the ancient city of Palmyra. Before the start of the Syrian Civil War, Palmyra—located in central Syria and one of the country’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites—received nearly 2 million visitors a year. After more than a decade of heavy conflict, little of the city’s awe-inspiring monuments remain. According to a new report by the Spanish National Research Center, around 80 percent of the modern city is destroyed and all of its major archaeological monuments have suffered heavy damage or are completely ruined.

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What’s Left for Palmyra?

Palmyra’s history stretches back to the early second millennium BCE when the city’s famous palm oasis served as a stopover for caravans making their way from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. After the Roman invasion of Syria (c. 64 BCE), it became a prosperous Roman colony. It was during the Hellenistic and Roman periods that much of Palmyra’s impressive archaeological structures were constructed, including a magnificent colonnaded street, a theater, a city wall, an agora, temples dedicated to Levantine, Mesopotamian, and Arabian deities, and much more. The city also had a thriving Jewish population, with tombstones of Palmyrene Jews having been found in the Beit Shearim necropolis in the Lower Galilee.

The temple of Bel in Palmyra after its destruction by ISIS in 2015. Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 270 CE, Palmyra rebelled against Roman rule and succeeded in temporarily conquering a large swath of the Middle East before Rome was able to defeat the Palmyrene army. Following another uprising in 273, the city was sacked and much of it was destroyed. After the Roman period, the city faded in importance but it continued to be inhabited, with sporadic periods of wealth and importance.

Fast forward to 2011, when the city became a battleground between rebel and regime forces, with both sides actively shelling the city, including archaeological areas. Things became much worse in 2015, however, when ISIS captured the city. In addition to bombings by Syrian forces, ISIS carried out large-scale destructions of many of the ancient buildings, blowing up the temples of Baal Shamin and Bel, the Arch of Triumph built by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 CE), and numerous other ancient structures. ISIS even used the Roman theater as a site to carry out executions, including the execution of Khaled al-Asaad, a renowned expert on ancient Palmyra who had served as the head of antiquities for the city for more than 40 years. ISIS also destroyed numerous Islamic buildings and was responsible for the mass looting of archaeological artifacts, many of which ended up on the black market.

Theater of Palmyra before ISIS control of the city. Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Although Syrian forces managed to retake Palmyra in 2017, much of the ancient city lies in ruins, mirroring the state of the modern city. Despite some limited restoration efforts by the Assad regime, the archaeological site has continued to deteriorate. Additionally, several of Palmyra’s archaeological sites were requisitioned as defensive fortifications by Russian and Syrian forces. In 2020, Assad forces even set fire to the palm orchards around the Efqa Oasis, from which the city takes both its Semitic and Latinized names, Tadmar and Palmyra.

The Palmyra Museum, which was hit especially hard by the conflict, sits largely empty, with most of its once impressive collection having been either looted by ISIS or taken away by the Assad regime to Damascus for safekeeping. Today, the museum is protected by a few guards from the Directorate of Antiquities and local volunteers, but it lacks the staff to begin restoration work. Unfortunately, the situation is not likely to change anytime soon, as only 10 percent of the pre-war population of 100,000 remains in the city. With infrastructure and housing destroyed, it will be a long time before heritage conservation becomes a priority. However, archaeologists hope that with the fall of Assad, international organizations will be willing to partner with Syria to restore Palmyra to its former glory.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Report: Temple of Baal Shamin in Palmyra Blown Up by ISIS

ISIS Captures Syrian City of Palmyra

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