Islamic State for Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants destroyed Palmyra’s ancient temple of Baalshamin in Syria.
The temple is said to have blown with explosives that caused much damage to the temple.
Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria.
Who is ‘Baalshamin’
- Baalshamin is a Northwest Semitic god and a title applied to different gods at different places or times in ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions, especially in Canaan/Phoenicia and Syria.
- The title was most often applied to Hadad, who is also often titled just Ba‘al.
- Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria (Bel being the other supreme god).
Distruction by ISIS
In August 2015, Syrian officials and activists reported that ISIS had “placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin… and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple,” and killed Khaled al-Asaad, a prominent Syrian archaeologist who worked at the site.
