A monument from a temple in the ancient city of Palmyra destroyed by so-called Islamic State (IS) is to be recreated in Trafalgar Square

The replicas of the Temple of Bel’s entrance arch will be built to coincide with world heritage week in April.
The replicas of the Temple of Bel’s entrance arch will be built to coincide with world heritage week in April. © Sandra Auger/Reuters

The 2,000-year-old arch is all that remains of the Temple of Bel, part of the Syrian Unesco World Heritage site, captured by militants in May.

It will be recreated from photographs, using a 3D printer.

The institute behind the project hopes the arch will draw attention to the importance of cultural heritage.

IS militants have ransacked and demolished several similar ancient sites to Palmyra that pre-date Islam in Iraq, denouncing them as symbols of "idolatry".

Alexy Karenowska, from the Institute of Digital Archaeology, which is behind the project, said she hoped it would help people understand how important it was to preserve cultural sites in war-torn countries such as Syria.

The arch will be created using a 3-D printer and displayed in April
The arch will be created using a 3-D printer and displayed in April - “We tend to think about cultural heritage in a somewhat parochial way,” Karenowska said. “We also think of other people’s cultural heritage as being something that’s particular to them. “We see that very much with the Middle East. People in the west find it very easy to say that the Middle East has this great cultural heritage and this problem [of its destruction] is something that’s happening to them. “The idea is to underline that cultural heritage is something that’s shared between people. It’s about people’s roots and it’s important to recognise also that this is something that as humans we do all understand on some deep level.” Roger Michel, the IDA’s executive director, told the Times: “It is really a political statement, a call to action, to draw attention to what is happening in Syria and Iraq and now Libya. We are saying to them ‘if you destroy something we can rebuild it again’. The symbolic value of these sites is enormous. We are restoring dignity to people.”

A damaged, historic piece of architecture in Syria will soon get recognition in New York City and London. A team of archeologists are looking to build replicas of the arch at the Temple of Bel in Palmyra in Syria, The Guardian first reported.

ISIS destroyed most of the 2,000 year-old temple in August this year, shortly after they had captured the city of Palmyra. All that remained was a single arch.

The replica project has been proposed by the Institute for Digital Archeology(IDA) - a collaborative project between Harvard University,Oxford University, and the Museum of the Future in Dubai, which calls for the use of 3D printing and digital imagery in the field of archeology and preservation.

To create the replicas, which will be located in Times Square in New York and Trafalgar Square in London, the IDA will use 3D printing techniques. Over the past few months, the IDA has collaborated withUNESCO and handed out 3D cameras to a bunch of willing photographers to take images of monuments and objects, particularly in war torn areas, that are in danger of being destroyed.

The replicas will be built off-site and then assembled at their respective locations. They are set to be unveiled in April as part of World Heritage Week. The Temple of Bel was built in 32 AD and was dedicated to the Mesopotamian God, Bel. The Temple was subsequently converted into a church during the Byzantine period and into a mosque during the 12th Century. The Temple attracted 150,000 tourists each year before the civil war broke out in Syria.

Source: Curbed NY