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Bartın Orman Fakültesi Dergisi, vol.19, no.2, pp.7-17, 2017 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Palmyra was an important religious and trade center of inner Syria in ancient times, and included on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1980. Palmyra’s origin dates back to the Neolithic era. The city, known as “bride of the desert” or “pearl of the desert”, and frequented by caravans, lived the most splendid times during the Roman Empire. Thanks to the welfare of those times, many statues and monumental buildings were built. Nevertheless, the city has been harmed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who have been terrorizing Middle East lately, since May 2015. The reason of collapsing, dynamiting or destroying those heritages is attributed by Islamic terrorist groups to symbolizing idolization, what Islam ideologically refuses. In this paper, information gathered about The Ancient City of Palmyra, and the importance of the problem will be highlighted by evaluating the conditions before and after the destruction.