U.N. Confirms Destruction of Temple of Baal by ISIS
By ANNE BARNARD and HWAIDA SAAD

BEIRUT, Lebanon — After a day of conflicting reports about the extent of damage that Islamic State militants had inflicted on the Temple of Baal in the ancient city of Palmyra, Syria, a United Nations agency said late Monday that satellite images confirmed that the structure had been largely destroyed.

The primary temple building, nearly 2,000 years old, was flattened, according to the satellite images, taken Monday and released by the United Nations training and research agency Unitar, based in Geneva.

“We can confirm destruction of the main building of the Temple of Bel as well as a row of columns in its immediate vicinity,” the agency said in a statement sent to members of the news media, using a different transliteration for the temple.

As local activists and antiquities experts scrambled Monday to assess what had happened, all agreed that an explosion at the site on Sunday had damaged the best-preserved structure of the temple, a stone building that included the altar. Some experts had clung to optimism by saying the extent of the harm to the ruins was unclear, while residents and activists said reports had indicated severe damage.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, the director of Syria’s antiquities department, said earlier in the day that he thought the main building remained standing, nonetheless calling any damage a loss.

“It’s not a political battle, but this is a cultural battle, and everybody should participate in defending this heritage, this civilization,” he said.

The attack on the Temple of Baal came a week after the militants, who have held the Palmyra ruins and the modern city with the same name for three months, destroyed another ancient building there, the nearby Temple of Baalshamin.

The Temple of Baal was an even grander structure, with a towering altar building on a platform of large stone blocks at the center of a larger plaza encircled by columns and partial walls.

“It is not as huge as the damage at Baalshamin,” Mr. Abdulkarim said.

Khaled al-Homsi, an antigovernment activist and Palmyra native who recently fled to Turkey, accused Mr. Abdulkarim of trying to play down the damage. Mr. Homsi, who remains in close contact with residents of the city, said much of the structure had been knocked down, including a portico of eight columns just outside its walls and the altar inside.

His uncle Khalid al-Asaad, 83, a former antiquities director in Palmyra, was killed by the militants two weeks ago, his body suspended from a traffic light.

Consecrated in A.D. 32 to the Semitic god Baal, the temple is considered one of the most important sites in Palmyra. It was a relatively intact example of the fusion of Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman influences.

In modern times, the Temple of Baal has also been a cultural touchstone for Syrians. It was a backdrop for concerts in the annual Palmyra Music Festival, as the ancient amphitheater has been more recently for Islamic State executions.

The ancient city of Palmyra, which stands in the desert about 150 miles northeast of Damascus, is a Unesco World Heritage site.

The Islamic State has widely publicized images of its fighters blowing up tombs and destroying statues that it considers blasphemous. Archaeologists and antiquities experts consider the losses irreparable, leading some to feel, as Mr. Abdulkarim said last week, “very weak, very pessimistic.”

On Monday, he added that among Syria’s many archaeological treasures, the Temple of Baal had special significance for him. “I visited the temple during the crisis,” he said, “and I took many pictures with my daughter, which is something I rarely do.”

He added, “It was an honor to stand in front of this great place.”

「沙漠新娘」劫 IS再炸古廟

好戰組織伊斯蘭國（IS）一周前以炸藥炸毀敘利亞巴邁拉古城的巴爾夏明神廟，卅日又再次引爆炸藥，這次意圖破壞古城內的貝爾神廟（Temple of Bel）。貝爾廟是古城內最重要、保存最完好的主廟。敘利亞古文物部表示，該廟「大抵完整如初」，「基本結構仍屹立原地」。

和較小的巴爾夏明廟一樣，貝爾廟同樣被聯合國教科文組織（UNESCO）列為世界遺產，具有近兩千年歷史的遺跡。貝爾廟據考興建於公元卅年，奉祀閃族神祇貝爾（Bel，意為「主」）。

敘利亞古文物部長阿布杜卡林和英國監督團體「敘利亞人權瞭望台」均稱，貝爾廟卅日發生爆炸。阿布杜卡林說，貝爾廟未受重創，僅部分受損，「神廟前方的柱列、神廟的結構、內部看不出毀壞。古廟仍屹立原地」，但他也說，所有情報仍待查證，古文物官員仍無法進入該地就近查看。

在阿布杜卡林對外說明前，媒體報導，貝爾廟的毀損程度不明。

美聯社引述巴邁拉居民的話說：「神廟全毀，石塊和柱子倒在地上。爆炸的巨響連聾子也聽得見。」這名居民還說，貝爾廟只剩牆壁未倒。

巴邁拉是世界馳名的希臘羅馬時代古城，位置在首都大馬士革東北方的沙漠內，原本為商業中心，後來沒落，但古城的柱列雄偉，後人稱為「沙漠中的新娘」。IS五月占領巴邁拉後，外界即擔心眾神廟可能不保，IS果真一周內連炸兩廟。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/world/middleeast/isis-militants-severely-damage-temple-of-baal-in-palmyra.html

2015-09-01．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯王麗娟