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The Lion of Al-Lat statue was one of several
ancient monuments damaged by Islamic State at Palmyra, the
ancient city in central Syria which the jihadists have twice
seized from government control during the six-year-long war.
The 15-tonne statue was damaged by Islamic State in 2015 during
its first spell in control of Palmyra. It was moved to Damascus
for restoration when Syrian government forces recovered the city
with Russian military support in March, 2016.
"It is an exceptional statue, there are no more such statues in
Palmyra," said Bartosz Markowski, the Polish archaeologist who
spent around two months restoring it. Around half the restored
statue was original, he said.
"It was an internationally known symbol of Palmyra, it was
standing in front of the museum. Every tourist visiting Palmyra
and the museum had a photo with it," he said. The restoration
was funded by the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.
The statue, which is 345 centimeters (11 feet) high, was
discovered at the temple of Al-Lat in Palmyra in 1977 by Polish
archaeologists.
The statue will be on display at the National Museum of Damascus
for the foreseeable future but may eventually be returned to its
place in Palmyra, Mahmoud Hammoud, the director of Syrian
antiquities, said.
Islamic State also destroyed Palmyra's famous Triumphal Arch
during its first spell in control of the city.
Islamic State overran Palmyra for a second time in December,
2016. It destroyed parts of the Tetrapylon, a monument marking a
bend in the ancient colonnade, and the facade of the
second-century Roman Theater before it was driven from the city
in March this year.
(Reporting by Kinda Makieh; Writing by Tom Perry. Editing by
Jane Merriman)
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