Damage to Syria’s heritage 17 June 2014

Tribute to Mr Hassan of the Bosra Museum of Folk Traditions

• Mr Hassan, the secretary of the Bosra Museum of Folk Traditions, was killed by a sniper on the morning of the 26 May 2014 as he was leaving for work. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues.

  DGAM, The death of Mr Hassan, the secretary of the museum, by a sniper in Bosra, available here.

Details of damage to Homs

With the recent change in situation in Homs, the DGAM have conducted a number of assessment missions.  The details below are approximate translations from the Arabic articles on their website (with thanks to Mr Abdae).

• The ancient market: With the return of calm to the city of Homs, the Dept of Antiquities entered the old city, and spotted a number of damages in the old market, and the outcome was as follows: several shops in the Nouri market, shoe market and jewellery market – physical damage to structure, construction and infrastructure, with collapsed portions of walls and ceilings, ruined floors, doors and windows of shops, damaged stone facades as a result of fires.  It is noteworthy that the market in Homs is old: it is a complex of about 15 ancient markets, consisting of corridors and surrounding boutiques.

  Read the article with photos, Pictures: Extent of the damage in the old market of Homs, here.

• Homs Museum: Now the security situation permits accessed to the Department of Antiquities in Homs, the Dept has been able to visit the museum building and the Department to inspect the damage to them.  They have stated in the report that the building of the Museum of Homs is in good condition, and the damage is limited to the glass windows, and doors, as well as office furniture and equipment, and documents.  Museum collections were transferred to safe places at the beginning, and are still preserved and in good condition: the team will inventory them during the coming period.  The Department inspected the damage to the museum building in August 2012 and documented it then – no changes have occurred.

  Read the article, Pictures: Damages to the Museum building in Homs and the Department of Antiquities, here.

• Religious buildings: A technical committee of the Department of Antiquities in Homs began an inventory and initial assessment/estimation of the damage caused to the old buildings of the old city, where the structures of many of the religious buildings were partly damaged.

  Most affected was the Dalati Mosque or Mosque of Sultan Abdul Hamid, also known as the Mosque of Adaakk . This Mosque is considered one of the most important Islamic monuments and archaeological sites in Alhamidiyah Street in Homs. According to the report of the Technical Committee, the bulk of the minaret of the mosque has been destroyed.  Bombs tarnished its southern and south-eastern interfaces, and shattered a large section of windows and wooden doors, as well as shops belonging to the mosque. They also demolished the southern part of the mosque and a large part of the roof.  The minaret of the Virtues mosque in the area of Bustan Al-Diwan, which is characterized as high and square-shaped, has been destroyed – only the bottom still exists, which constitutes one-third of the minaret. The greatest damage happened to the eastern entrance and to the courtyard of the mosque. A lot of contents of the mosque were stolen. The Nouri Mosque also has been damaged.  Most the of the damage happened to the southern and western entrance which leads to the courtyard of the mosque, also destroyed the roof and walls partially, and exposed portions of the interior walls and the southern facade of the fire, and collapsed the top of the minaret, has also been monitoring a large number of holes in the contracts within the campus. It is noteworthy that Nouri Mosque is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the old city of Homs, and is similar to the model of architectural Umayyad Mosque in Damascus in the terms of its structure and its architecture. There has been limited damage to the Al-Khoder & As-Sarraj mosques, in the courtyards of the mosques and minarets.

  Read the article, Pictures: Damage in religious buildings in old Homs – first glimpse, here.

• Additional buildings: The photos shows the extent of damage caused to these buildings, as observed in Dar Abdullah Farkouh. Some parts of the entrance to the west were demolished, in addition to damage to an interior entrance, hallways of the building, and the collapse of part of the outer wall.  The images show the main damage to the Arba’ien (forty) church in the Ghassaniya school. The roof the building was destroyed, the tower of the church damaged and the historical clock. The old Coffeehouse/Café (Qahwat Al-farah), which played an important role in the social life of the city of Homs, was built in the early last century: this building was subjected to a fire. There was serious damage to the roof and walls of the building. (Read the article, Pictures: damage to buildings in old Homs – a second glance, here.) The Department of Antiquities & Museums in Homs wrote a third report about the damage in Homs, covering the Museum of Popular Traditions (Qasr Al-Zahrawi) and the Centre for Archaeological Studies and Documentation (Dar Mofied Al-Amin). There was damage to wooden doors and windows, but the building remained completely intact in terms of construction with minor damage in the northern interface of the building. The dome of the palace was destroyed, as well as the north-west part of the Ottoman wing, with the loss of the bulk of the whittled wooden doors and windows and wooden interiors, and the destruction of office in the administrative section of the palace.

  (Read the article, Pictures: damage to buildings in old Homs – a third glimpse, here)

Further damage to the National Museum of Aleppo

• The National Museum of Aleppo was hit twice by mortar strikes at the beginning of June, sustaining light damage to the structure and the gardens. However, several employees were seriously injured: our thoughts are with them for their safe recovery.

  (Reported by Aleppo Archaeology, and the DGAM – article 1 and article 2)

Destruction of The Synagogue of the Prophet Elijah in Jobar, Damascus, seems confirmed

• Further evidence has appeared to confirm the destruction of the synagogue, reported in our last newsletter – The Daily Beast report, Exclusive Photos: Syria’s Oldest Synagogue Destroyed, can be viewed here.
•  Other news articles on the subject include
  • Confirmation from the DGAM, with pictures – Pictures: damage to the prohet Eliyahu synagogue located in the district of Jobar in Damascus.
  • An opinion piece in Ha’aretz, Who will save the remains of Syria’s ancient synagogue?, from 2nd June 2014
  • An article in Dorothy King’s PhDiva blog, Jobar Synagogue Destroyed, on 03 June 2014
  • Jobar Synagogue, in the Jeruslaem Post on 15 June 2014.
  • (And others)