Many of Syria's architectural treasures have been reduced to rubble, but limited restoration operations have finally begun, while the majority of the damaged archaeological sites suffer from a lack of efforts to restore them to life.

In a report published in the British newspaper "The Guardian", writer Rowan Moore said that the Aleppo center was a miracle. It was the embodiment of the material and cultural wealth that once made Syria one of the fortunate and most urbanized countries on earth. It is similar to California of the Middle East, with its climate, fertile land, physical beauty, and its location between the Mediterranean Sea and the Silk Road to the east.

Architecture of Syria

The writer added that in Aleppo there was a castle whose huge walls were built on a hill, next to the souks, which is a huge network of alleys, covered streets and spaces that combine products, trade exchanges and craftsmanship, where the glamor of ancient architecture shines amid movement and chaos.

There was also the Umayyad Mosque named after the Umayyads, who founded it in the 8th century CE, but its surviving texture came from later periods. Stone, the material of the Citadel Hill of Aleppo and the caves of the souks, became the polished and reflective surface of the great courtyard.

These three monuments represent Syria, which was built over thousands of years by various empires and dynasties. Syria was a country whose architectural masterpieces were documented in a complete history: from the desert city of Palmyra with Roman influence, through the mosques and palaces of the Umayyads, Abbasids, Ottomans and Crusader castles, to the Monastery of Saint Simon in the countryside outside Aleppo, which in the fifth century was the largest church in the world.

The writer mentioned that the architecture of Syria reflects the spirit of free innovation and joy, which is evident in the capitals of the columns in the Monastery of Saint Simon, where the paper-shaped decorations of the classical architecture were designed to appear as if they were blowing in the wind. There is something similar in the mosaics of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, where a green paradise appears on a golden background, or in the flow of fabrics on the statues of Palmyra.

Syria was also a multicultural and multi-religious country, and lived mostly in the shadow of tolerance and cooperation, until it was locked in the ugly cage of borders stipulated in the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916. With the differences in the country fueled by wrong policies and external actors, Syria has spent the past decade destroying itself or In being destroyed, in the words of the British newspaper.

Restoration attempts

Despite the continuation of the war and the exacerbation of the economic disaster due to sanctions and the spread of the Corona virus, restoration and reconstruction operations have started mostly with external funding. For example, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture is supporting the rebuilding of some markets in Aleppo. A number of churches were also restored with the help of foreign congregations. In some cases, individual companies did what they could to clean, repair, and reopen.

The Umayyad Mosque is being restored, its minaret, which collapsed in 2013, is being erected, and a thousand parts of it have been removed and classified and placed like a picture puzzle in the courtyard. This work is funded by the Chechen government for political reasons.

The writer mentioned that the Syrian Heritage Initiative has compiled an archive of 200,000 photographs of Syrian sites taken before the war for the reconstruction and restoration project. It has documented historic buildings and their damage. It provides residential neighborhood shapes and layouts, to be reconstructed in the same style.

This work brings options and discussions about the difference between Palmyra and Aleppo, where Palmyra was a city full of Syrian heritage; But part of this city despite its beauty - as it was before the Civil War - is inspired by the imagination of archaeologists during the French occupation after the First World War, who removed the Arab homes, which were built from the ruins over centuries; To rebuild the destroyed structures. In doing so, they made a version of Palmyra that hadn't existed before.

Multicultural heritage

Stefan Weber, director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, likened Aleppo to Barcelona or Florence, saying, "The city was marked by religious pluralism, its intangible heritage, its music and its cuisine."

"The priority is not for churches or mosques, but rather for people to return to their homes, we need their help to rebuild their homes and livelihoods," says Dima Diop, an architect from Aleppo who is now working in Berlin for the Syrian Heritage Initiative.

The British newspaper says that the markets, some of which have been digging into pits due to the bombs, are the most important for residential neighborhoods. According to Thierry Grandin, an architect working for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the restoration of some markets has been accompanied by some efforts to ensure the return of the original shopkeepers. They also help local sculptors to develop their techniques, and "train people to train others", so that the craft will not disappear in the future.

The writer acknowledged that this task is difficult in a country that is still mostly focused on survival. In a process that has taken 5 years to date, 650 meters of the covered market have been rebuilt, out of a total of 9 kilometers. Grandin says it will take "10 to 20 years, at least to complete the works".

"The technical level could be improved, given the expertise and funding now available," says Diop. At present, there is no comprehensive strategy, only the efforts of individuals and agencies, and given that the corrupt regime is still in power, it is impossible to know how well it has managed the interests of the country's urban fabric.

The biggest challenge remains to be determined to rebuild and restore Syrian cities, in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Destroy monuments

ISIS destroyed archaeological sites in the city of Palmyra, which is more than two thousand years old, while the Syrian regime forces transferred antiquities from the area after the exit of ISIS to stores in the Syrian capital, and there were reports that parts of them were sold on the black market for the benefit of powerful Syrian officers .

In 2012, an attack by the Syrian regime destroyed Talbiseh Castle (north of Homs), while its forces' attack on Aleppo led to clashes with the opposition factions; It caused extensive damage to important archaeological sites, including the Umayyad Mosque and the historic Citadel of Aleppo, during the battles between the regime forces and opposition fighters in 2012 and 2013.

In addition to the damage caused by the clashes and the bombing, the Syrian cultural heritage is subject to widespread looting.

Antiquities experts confirm that archaeological sites are at risk from all conflicting parties in the Syrian arena, in addition to antiquities thieves who target museums and excavation sites to search for and loot antiquities, taking advantage of the insecurity in the country. These experts are likely that the stolen artifacts are smuggled through neighboring countries to be sold on the global black market.

The UNESCO has included 6 Syrian archaeological sites on the World Heritage List, which are the old neighborhoods of Damascus, old Aleppo, which is the oldest human settlement currently in the world and one of the largest religious centers in the ancient world, the Citadel of the Mdiq, the fortress castle, the ancient city of Bosra, and the city of Palmyra. And the ancient villages (north and northwest of the country), where the regions located (north of the limestone plateau), and include hundreds of ancient monasteries and churches.

The UNESCO confirms that excavations and looting are taking place in different parts of Syria, and in important archaeological sites, such as the ancient Sumerian city of Mari, the desert cities of Ebla, Palmyra, and Apamea, which were "completely destroyed", and that some archaeological sites were completely destroyed or looted. She describes these excavations as "extremely dangerous and destructive".

Threatened archaeological sites

It is estimated that a third of the buildings in Syria were destroyed during the years of the war, and this included important sites, most notably:

The ancient Citadel of Aleppo, which is located on a high hill, was built by ancient civilizations, from the Greeks and Byzantines to the Mamelukes and Ayyubids, and most of the current construction dates back to the Ayyubid era during the 12th and 13th centuries.

It is one of the oldest castles in the world, and has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986, and the war destroyed the areas surrounding the castle and parts of it.

In Palmyra - which has suffered from the devastation caused by ISIS and the bombing of the regime as well - the threat continues to threaten the city's antiquities, which date back more than two thousand years, and the museum building was damaged by the bombing of government forces in 2016, and ISIS destroyed important monuments in the city, and detonated my temple Indeed, Baal Shamin.

The city of Busra al-Sham witnessed great destruction, and the historic city was a religious and commercial center on the Silk Road, and an important station for pilgrims on their way to Mecca, and its Roman theater was damaged by the fighting.

The war destroyed historical Aleppo in (the north), and the Umayyad Mosque in it was severely damaged, and it is now full of rubble, and its minaret dating back to the 11th century AD was destroyed.

In the south, the neighborhoods of the old city of Damascus, which is the oldest inhabited capital in the world, were damaged, and shells were hit by its buildings dating back to the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic eras.

And Old Damascus, along with its counterparts, has become one of the Syrian sites classified on the UNESCO list of human heritage on the list of "threatened world heritage sites."