Ukraine in Arabic | UNESCO calls for Palmyra protection as ISIL withdraws from city
Kiev/ Ukraine in Arabic/ The militants reportedly withdrew from the site on Sunday after seizing it a day earlier. Irina Bolkova is from the United Nations organisation which protects world heritage sites.
She said: “Palmyra is an unbelievable monument in the middle of the desert. It is a place where we see different cultures. From Rome, Byzantine and Persia, Greece and Islam … We can not permit that Palmyra will be destroyed.”
Palmyra was founded in around 2000 BC as a caravan stop for travelers crossing the Syrian desert.
By the third century AD it was a prosperous metropolis and is mentioned in many ancient texts including the Hebrew Bible.
ISIL has already deliberately destroyed many ancient relics in Iraq in a bid to crush what it called non-Islamic ideas. The city is strategically important because it sits at a crossroads linking it to the cities of Homs and Damascus.