Will Isis destroy Palmyra?

http://mashable.com/2015/05/15/palmyra-photos-isis/

It breaks my heart to think that the great ancient city of Palmyra could soon be destroyed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra




Although this is a tetradrachm from Alexandria, it depicts Palmyrene Queen Zenobia's son Vabalathus, along with the reigning Emperor Aurelian:



Very sad, indeed.


guy

 

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I'd rather not think about this...

 

I couldn't agree more---and your photos of how it once appeared, after all these centuries, only makes me feel worse!!

 

I watch this video on Palmyra and I am filled with fear:



guy

 

So heartbreaking, that and among so many war crimes they've committed.

 

They are lucky I am not the ruler of this land, because if I was - than when I am finished they will strike MOAB on the obverse of their coins for the next 3 centuries. Then I would publicly apologize for all the pots we stepped on getting the job done. The potters of antiquity would understand.

 

They will put a new countermark on the coin. ANCIENTNOOB. lol

 

Can't we send elite forces to protect these historic sites? Or better yet... as they approach the site, drop a bomb on them. As John Oliver said, they are "the ebola of people".

 

Bulldozers versus Predator Drones is a nice fight on Liveleak.

 

I'm really more curious than shocked.
What you guys think they can do to those ancient buildings? Bulldozers aren't going to work dude. They stood there for thousands of years because they were made of giant stones. You can pull it down but that doesn't really destroy the building blocks themselves. Are they going to move the stones hundreds of miles so we can't find them later? Or they going to use dynamite to blow them up? I can't see that being an effective method of disposing granites...

Not to mention, a lot of people have been fascinated by the foundation structures of these temples, that were ruins of even older temples and made of absolutely gigantic cut stones. It might be interesting if them ISIS actually managed to expose more of those foundation structures, but I really don't think they'd reach that far.

 

I am as appalled as everyone else at the harm ISIS has done to historical sites but the armed forces have their hands full just protecting the people of the surrounding area. As unfortunate as it may be to our preservation of history, if we have to choose where to allocate resources, we need to protect human life over monuments.

 

Part of the problem especially in Palmyra/Tadmur is that any coalition fighting against IS (do you say "ISIS" in the US?) there would, in some way, fight on Assad's side. The Syrian government had, and again has, a torture prison there.

Maybe the IS terrorists are primarily interested in the propaganda effect: Look, we may not have been terribly successful in Iraq lately, but we now control (well, are about to control) this world famous site, and can do with it whatever we want.

Christian

 

Hello,
I am watching the news closely for this topic, I have two ancient prints from 1687 from a Dutch artist de Bruyn one from Tadmore and the other Aleppo, I was there in 2007.
I really hope the international coalition will stop them before really entering Palmyra, the ancient temple of Bel is beautiful.

 

Hello,
Some more news:

http://www.albawabaeg.com/54898


I also see this, pufffff finally they are getting smarter:

"The museum was emptied a few weeks ago, and the main objects were transferred to secret safe spaces," he told AFP.

Nevertheless, "there are still pieces that we could not transport because they are fixed on the wall", Abdulkarim added.

The antiquities director, who had called on the international community to prevent a "catastrophe" at Palmyra, said he remained worried about the "ancient city, especially its sculpted sarcophagi."

Since Saturday, the jihadis have been firmly entrenched one kilometer (less than a mile) from Palmyra's archaeological treasures, including colonnaded alleys and elaborate tombs southwest of the city.

 

I doubt that had done much good.
Palmyra was destroyed by timur centuries ago and had been kept a ruin since.
What those museum had were probably gathered from surrounding areas in modern times.

 

No worry the US will give away billions of dollars for aid . I think I live in the wrong country, the US has lost their minds many years ago . We've ( US ) become the new Hitler ...

 

While I realize that a topic like this is "borderline", let us keep it focused on coins.

Christian

 

They stood there for thousands of years because, during most of that time, psychopaths did not have access to power equipment and explosives.

For that matter, how do you suppose those stones were quarried, sculpted, and erected in the first place? What man can build, man can destroy. In fact, what takes great men (and women) to build can be destroyed by the smallest and lowest of men. I hope we're not about to see yet another demonstration of that.

 

Unfortunately most Wars were about Regional, unfortunately from the minute we set foot on this great planet .. Coins just like people will come and go, along with everything else ....

 

Nothing lasts forever---even the pyramids are rapidly crumbling---but we don't have to help accelerate that process....and we should do all we realistically can to preserve all we can for posterity. I wonder how future historians and archeologists will view and judge our times.