The Syrian government believes the ancient city of Palmyra could be repaired in about five years following its recent recapture from Islamic State militants.
According to the Syrian government’s antiquities director Maamoun Abdulkarim, the restoration of the city’s archaeological treasures, including some of the most revered in the Middle East, is possible despite reports that the city had been destroyed.
“With the help of the international community, we can restore Palmyra’s ruins in five years,” Abdulkarim said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Syrian forces, aided by Russian airstrikes, recaptured the city on Sunday from the Islamic State after 10 months of occupation, giving President Bashar Assad his first major victory over the extremist group.
The 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamim, parts of the Roman Temple of Bel and three ancient tombs, one dating to 44 A.D., were among the sites that were damaged. The country’s most prominent antiquities scholar, 82-year-old Khalid Asaad, was also beheaded by the militants in August.
However, Abdulkarim revealed that many of Palmyra’s famed antiquities survived the occupation, and said recently taken photographs of the city indicated more than 80 percent of the city remained in good condition.
“The panoramic view of Palmyra — the colonnades, the baths, the arches and most of the temples — are surprisingly still intact,” he said. “I expected the damage to be 20 times worse than this. After months of worrying, crying, I felt the best moments of happiness when I saw it was better than I expected.”
The city had few residents left, but according to an activist from Palmyra who was in contact with those remaining, Syrian government forces and fighters from Hezbollah relied on airstrikes and firepower to reclaim the city.
“The Russian raids have destroyed the infrastructure, schools, hospitals and mosques completely. Bombing has also destroyed more than 50 percent of the city neighborhoods,” the Palmyra Revolutionary Coordination Committee, a local antigovernment and anti-ISIS group, said in a statement released last week.
