Skip to content
Palmyra

Russia helping to reconstruct Palmyra sculptures damaged by IS

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Palmyra
Arch of Triumph the eastern section of Palmyra’s colonnade before it was destroyed in 2015. Image by Jerzy Strzelecki. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

MOSCOW (AP) – The Russian Defense Ministry says that scientists in Damascus have begun reconstructing ancient sculptures from the city of Palmyra that were damaged by the Islamic State group during Syria’s civil war.

The ministry said in a statement on Monday – citing reports by the state news agency RIA-Novosti – that a group of eight experts has started work on the statues and sculptures rescued from Palmyra.

The ancient city is home to one of the Middle East’s most spectacular archaeological sites. Many of them were badly damaged by IS in 2015. Palmyra is a world heritage site protected by the United Nation’s cultural agency.

RIA-Novosti cited Syrian officials as saying that they are getting help from Russia’s Pushkin museum in Moscow.

___

Copyright 2018 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-07-09-18 1242GMT

 

Palmyra