PALMYRA ( SYRIA ): 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. Local travellers are visiting the once-thriving landmarks, including the ancient capital of Palmyra and the medieval Crusader castle of Crac des Chevaliers, and conservationists hope their historical and cultural significance will ultimately attract foreign tourists again.
Palmyra
Palmyra, one of Syria’s six UNESCO World Heritage sites, was when a crucial hub for the ancient Silk Road network that connected the Roman and Parthian empires to Asia. Located in the Palestinian desert, it is renowned for its 2, 000-year-old Roman-era remains. It is now characterized by destroyed churches and destroyed columns.
Before the Arab revolt that began in 2011 and rapidly escalated into a brutal civil war, Palmyra was Syria’s major holiday destination, attracting around 150, 000 visitors regular, Ayman Nabu, a scholar and skilled in ruins told The Associated Press. According to him,” Palmyra revitalized the steppe and used to be a global tourist magnet” and was the” Bride of the Desert.”
The ancient city served as the capital of the Roman Empire’s Arab client state that briefly rebelled and established its own kingdom under the leadership of Queen Zenobia in the third century.
In more recent times, the area had darker associations. Tadmur prison, where thousands of Syrian rebels were reportedly tortured, was located there. After capturing the town, the Islamic State group destroyed the prison.
Later, IS militants desecrated Palmyra’s historic temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, saying they were idolatries, 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. They established military installations in the nearby town, which was largely abandoned and severely damaged. 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.
He claimed that” we saw extensive excavation within the tombs,” noting significant damage done by 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”.
At the theater, the Tetrapylon, and other ruins along the main colonnaded street, Nabu said they documented many illegal drillings revealing sculptures, as well as theft and smuggling of funerary or tomb-related sculptures in 2015 when IS had control of the site.
22 other sculptures were smuggled out, according to Nabu, while seven of the stolen sculptures were recovered and kept in an Idlib museum. Many pieces are most likely to end up in private collections or underground markets.
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.
” Syria has a treasure of ruins”, Nabu said, emphasising the need for preservation efforts. He claimed that the interim government of Syria, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has chosen to wait until the transition period before developing a strategic plan to restore heritage sites.
Matthieu Lamarre of the UN’s scientific, educational and cultural organization UNESCO, said the agency had since 2015, “remotely supported the protection of Syrian cultural heritage” through satellite analyses, reports and documentation and recommendations to local experts, but it did not conduct any work on site.
He added that if security conditions improve, UNESCO may offer technical assistance. UNESCO convened international experts in 2019 to state that thorough studies would be required before beginning significant restorations.
Crac des Chevaliers
Beyond Palmyra, other historical sites bear the scars of war.
Crac des Chevaliers, a medieval castle built by the Romans and later expanded by the Crusaders, was heavily bombarded during the Syrian civil war, perched on a hill near the town of Al-Husn, with stunning views.
Armed fighters in military garb recently took selfies among the ruins while circling the castle grounds with local tourists.
Hazem Hanna, an architect and head of Crac des Chevaliers ‘ antiquities division, pointed to the collapsed columns and an airstrike-damaged entrance staircase. Damage from government airstrikes in 2014 destroyed much of the central courtyard and the arabesque-adorned columns, Hanna said.
I hope and anticipate that when the opportunity arises for tourists to visit Syria, we will experience a significant tourism revival, he said, based on the cultural background of Syria’s historical sites and their archaeological and historical significance to enthusiasts worldwide.
Some sections of Crac des Chevalierswere renovated after airstrikes and the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2023 that struck a wide area of neighbouring Turkey and also Syria, Hanna said. However, much of the castle remains in ruins.
Nabu and Hanna both think that restoration will take time. Nabu remarked,” We need trained technical teams to evaluate the current state of the ruin sites.”
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. Poor maintenance and careless repurposing are the causes of clogging structures.
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 adorn the ruins, plastic pieces blending with ancient stone.
Moustafa Al-Kaddour, a local resident, returned after eight years. He reflected on his early memories while touring the ruin with members of his family from Quneitra.
” This is where we went to school”, he said, pointing in the distance. ” In the middle of class, we used to leave and come here to see the ruins”.
” My feelings are indescribable”, al-Kaddour, who also saw his father for the first time in years, told the AP. ” My brain still cannot comprehend that after eight years, by God’s will, we made it back home”.
He claimed that heavy shelling and gunfire had been used to cover the village’s ruins as the Assad forces had established a military presence there. 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 Citieswere added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2011 as an open-air museum, said Nabu.
Idlib province alone hosts “over 1, 000 heritage sites spanning different time periods- about a third of Syria’s total ruins”, he added.
Looting and unauthorized digging have caused significant damage, according to Nabu, who noted that new construction close to the ruins lacks planning and threatens preservation.
” Tens of thousands” of looted artifacts remain undocumented, he said. Authorities are assembling case files in coordination with the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums to find and hopefully retrieve those documents while they are being documented. ( AP ) AMS
