IG militants blew up the ancient temple in Palmyra

The militants of the "Islamic state" blew up the ancient temple of Baal Shamin in Syrian Palmyra, the BBC reports. Syrian officials said the temple was destroyed last Sunday.

However, according to activists of a human rights organization, the "Syrian Center for Monitoring of Human Rights", this happened a month ago.

As the head of the Syrian department for the protection of monuments Maamun Abdulkarim told AFP, the militants laid a large amount of explosives into the temple, the explosion caused him significant damage.

The temple of Baal Shamin was considered one of the most significant monuments of late antiquity, it was erected in honor of the Phoenician god of storms and fertile rains. Historians believe that it was erected in the 1st century AD.

Earlier, Islamists destroyed several ancient architectural monuments in Iraq, in particular, in Mosul and Nimrud. In this regard, there were fears that the same fate was waiting for Palmyra.

A few days ago, Islamic extremists publicly be ahead of the 81 -year -old archaeologist Khaled Asaad, the main caretaker of the architectural complex in Palmyra.