The temple of Baalshamin, dedicated to the Phoenician god of storms and fertilising rains, was almost completely intact and was one of the most visited. IS “placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin today [Sunday] and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple,” Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told to the media.The collumns collapsed. A week ago, Khaled al-Asaad, 81-year-old, who studied Palmyra for decades, had been beheaded by the militant group. ISIS previously destroyed the central library in the Iraqi city of Mosul, ancient artefacts at the central museum in the same city and the archaeological ruines of Nimrud.
