Why the Loss of Palmyra Hurts

By: Timothy Aderman

This week, ISIS expanded its territory in Iraq and Syria. Ramadi and Palmyra, respectively, both quickly fell as the black flags of ISIS descended upon them. As defenses fled the inevitable savagery, reports of Islamic State militias capturing U.S. military equipment was disheartening. More disheartening were reports of door to door searches leading to executions, beheadings, and trapped citizens unable to escape the Islamic State’s conquest.

Before its fall, the Syrian city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, may not have been a global household name. However, this ancient city is a standing museum with significant architecture and antiquities from ancient times.

Beautifully restored, sand-colored columns stand like palm trees rising out of the desert. Each structure is a heartbeat of an ancient city. Those who built it were a people similar to us. Only by time are we separated. Palmyra was the gift of an ancient people. It is a photo collage presenting the past so that we may learn from its memory. This city illustrates our constant pursuit of timelessness and immortality. It seeks to articulate the desire to be remembered.

When the city of Mosul fell in June of 2014, priceless treasures were blatantly destroyed by ISIS. Rumors swirled of other artifacts being sold on the black market. It is quite reasonable to assume Palmyra faces the same fate. It may be postulated that while this article is being written, Palmyra is being reduced to rubble and history is thus suffocated by the black flag of ISIS.

This inevitable havoc that ISIS will wreck on Palmyra is yet another robbery of humanity’s legacy, character, and inspiration. Only the barbarity that ISIS enacts upon other people including martyring Coptic and Ethiopian Christians, laying siege to ethnic Yazidis, and mass prisoner executions are more horrifying.

The destruction of relics and ruins of the past are not simply an illustration of ISIS’ ability to keep the divided Iraqi army on the run. As we remember the past in Palmyra, our conscience is assaulted. This past is us removed by time. As a major trading center of the ancient world, Palmyra provided a narrative to the human spirit’s ability to accomplish, achieve, and create. ISIS deplorable capture of Palmyra will leave us one less beautiful illustration in the world.

The historical value and significance of this site and subsequent destruction is a painful reminder that ISIS must be stopped by any means necessary.

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Photo: Wikimedia