Culture
21:09, 02-Oct-2017
2000-year-old statue damaged by ISIL goes on display after restoration
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The 2,000-year-old Lion of Al-Lat statue, which was damaged by ISIL in 2015, went on display in front of the National Museum of Damascus on Sunday after being restored.
The statue was one of the several ancient monuments damaged by ISIL in Palmyra, the ancient city in central Syria which the jihadists have twice seized from government control during the six-year-long war.
The 15-tonne statue was badly damaged by ISIL during its first spell in control of Palmyra. It was moved to Damascus for restoration when Syrian government forces recovered the city in the March of 2016, with the help of the UNESCO and experts from Poland.
People take selfies in front of the restored Lion of al-Lat, a 2,000-year-old statue, on display in Damascus, Syria October 1, 2017. /Reuters Photo
People take selfies in front of the restored Lion of al-Lat, a 2,000-year-old statue, on display in Damascus, Syria October 1, 2017. /Reuters Photo
"It is an exceptional statue, there are no more such statues in Palmyra," said Bartosz Markowski, the Polish archaeologist who spent around two months restoring it. Half of the restored statue was original, he said.
The statue, which is 345 centimeters tall, was discovered at the temple of Al-Lat in Palmyra in 1977 by Polish archaeologists.
The statue will be on display at the National Museum of Damascus for the foreseeable future but may eventually be returned to its place in Palmyra, said Mahmoud Hammoud, the director of Syrian antiquities.
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Source(s): Reuters