Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
London, SANA – A replica of the Palmyra Arch of Triumph was installed in Trafalgar Square in London after being manufactured by the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) of Oxford University.
The scale model of the Arch of Triumph has been made from marble by the IDA using 3D technology, based on photographs of the original arch which was destroyed by ISIS terrorists last October.
ISIS terrorists destroyed large parts of the ancient sites of the UNESCO-listed archeological city of Palmyra, including the Temple of Bel, the Temple of Baalshamin, the Lion of Al-Lat statue and the Arch of Triumph and beheaded the well famed archeologist of Palmyra Khaled al-Asaad, before the army restored security and stability to Palmyra in March after it was under ISIS control since May 2015.
Engineer Lina Quteifan, director of the World Heritage Sites Department at the Directorate General of Museums and Antiquities, told SANA that IDA designed a copy statue of the original one which was destroyed by ISIS in Palmyra, indicating that the designed replica represents two thirds of the original one’s scale.
The replica is 6 m high and weighs 12 tons, she said, noting that the recreation of the statue took 40 days of work nonstop.
The statue was installed in Trafalgar Square as a first station within the World Cultural Heritage week, as it will later be moved to a number of world major cities including New York, Amsterdam, Venice, Dubai then back to Syria to be finally placed on Palmyra’s main square where the archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad was assassinated, Quteifan added.
Earlier on April 13, the Executive Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) unanimously adopted a Russian-drafted resolution on the role of UNESCO in restoring and preserving the ancient city of Palmyra and other Syrian heritage sites.
She made it clear that the restoration of Palmyra would not be through 3D technology except in some places so as to shed light on some important precise details of the damaged sites and monuments, adding that the restoration would follow scientific principles and be in accordance with international recommendations in cooperation between local and international partners.
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Barry/H. Said
