Beginning in 2015, the pace of such destruction accelerated dramatically as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also known as ISIS) expanded its sphere of control in the Middle East. ISIL fighters looted what treasures could be sold to support their military campaign, and they destroyed and defaced significant portions of the ancient cities of Nineveh and Hatra in Iraq. The ancient Syrian city of Palmyra suffered perhaps the most extensive damage. In August 2015 the Temple of Baal Shamen, dedicated to the Phoenician storm god, was blown up. ISIL fighters followed by razing one of Palmyra’s largest surviving edifices, the Temple of Bol, as well as the site’s iconic monumental arch. Conservationists and scholars with UNESCO and other international groups worked to protect and preserve the affected sites even as the battle lines in the Syrian Civil War shifted, but they did so at great personal risk. Syrian scholar Khaled al-Asaad, who had served as Palmyra’s chief archaeologist for 40 years, was publicly beheaded by ISIL for refusing to divulge the location of relics associated with the site. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova characterized ISIL’s actions as a war crime, and she called upon the global community to unite around its shared heritage, saying, “We must respond to this criminal chaos that destroys culture with more culture.”
Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Greek Orthodox monastery situated on Mount Sinai more than 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) above sea level in a narrow valley north of Mount Mūsā in the Sinai peninsula. Often incorrectly called the Sinai Independent Greek Orthodox Church, the monastic foundation is the smallest of the autonomous churches that together constitute the Eastern Orthodox church. The abbot of the monastery, who is also the archbishop of Sinai, Paran, and Raithu, is elected by the brotherhood and consecrated by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem. One of its early abbots was St. John Climacus.
