Syrian chief of antiquities told the media on Monday.
In the latest act of vandalism against Syria’s cultural heritage perpetrated by Isis, Maamoun Abdulkarim said that sources in the city, which was conquered by Isis after a week-long siege in May, had informed him the arch was destroyed on Sunday.
“It’s a crime in every sense of the word. All we can do is share the sadness.” he said to The Guardian newspaper in a telephone interview from Damascus.
At the time when Palmyra was a Roman colony, the arch was built in commemoration of a visit by the emperor and his entourage.
Isis’s puritanical interpretation of Islam deems the preservation of ancient artefacts and monuments to be a form of idolatry.
Reports said that the elderly head of Palmyra’s antiquities was also beheaded by the Isis militants after he refused to pass on the location of hidden artefacts.
The arch carried no religious significance and its destruction appeared to be fuelled entirely by spite as, according to Abdulkarim, the arch carried no religious significance. As a part of a process of systematically destroying the ruins, the terror group had also planted explosives on several other buildings in the ancient city, he added.
The architect was fearful that the majority of Palmyra’s monuments could be destroyed if the international community and forces on the ground in Syria did not act.
“Liberating Palmyra is an immediate necessity. The international community must find a solution to liberate it,” Abdulkarim said.
“They’re destroying building by building, within three to six months, at this pace, we’re going to lose Palmyra,” he added.
The arch was known to locals as the “Bridge of the Desert” because it linked the Roman Empire to Persia and the East. The arch sat on top of columns lining the ancient city streets. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the columns have been left in place.
ABC News reported that Adbulkarim said that the city based witnesses had informed him that the militants were digging holes with bulldozers to place explosives around the arch as well as other sites that he expects would be destroyed.
Meanwhile, media reports said that the office of the Syrian presidency posted a statement on its official Facebook page today condemning the destruction of the arch as “revenge” of the civilization that “disrupts …. their darkness.”
According to UNESCO, Palmyra is a World Heritage Site and contains “the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world”. The director general of UNESCO has called the destruction of Palmyra, once a top tourist attraction in the Middle East, “new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com & www.abcnews.go.com)
