Palmyra is an oasis in the Syrian desert, an ancient city whose remains form one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the Middle East. It was once a crossroads linking the Roman and Persian worlds and an important trade stop-off on the famed Silk Road. But there is also a modern city nearby. It is all known as Palmyra, to use its Greek name, or Tadmur in Aramaic and modern Arabic. Its splendours have endured, despite repeated destruction over the centuries, most recently during the Syrian civil war.

In 1980 UNESCO listed Palmyra as a World Heritage Site. The city had been surveyed as early as the 18th century – one of the first archaeological sites in the region to be studied – establishing that it became part of the Roman Empire shortly before the 1st century CE, but also had strong Middle Eastern influences. Professor Pascal Butterlin of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University says the site ‘is part of the Syrian national narrative. The ruins of Palmyra even appear on banknotes symbolising the country’s unity, built mainly around the figure of Queen Zenobia’ – who challenged the Roman emperor Aurelian in the 3rd century CE. Along the great colonnade, which stretches for more than a kilometre, stand the theatre, agora and baths.

In 2015 ISIS destroyed a significant number of Palmyra’s monuments including the temples dedicated to its main deities, Bel and Baalshamin, and executed the museum’s director of antiquities. ‘Up until this point, heritage had been a collateral victim. Now it was a target,’ Butterlin says. After Russian forces took control of Palmyra from ISIS in 2016, the Mariinsky Orchestra from St Petersburg gave a concert in the ancient theatre.

Ten years later, the site is still in a critical condition. ‘Some columns have become weak and are at risk of collapse; the walkway leading to the citadel is heavily damaged and thus unusable… Since the fall of the Assad regime, there has been no progress,’ says Mariam (…)

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(2) See Adel Bakawan, ‘Iraq: Unmanageable diversity’, Politique étrangère, Paris, iss 1, January 2022.