Israeli Strikes Threaten Lebanon’s Archaeological Treasures

[kagy]

Israeli Strikes Threaten Lebanon’s Archaeological Treasures

The country is home to thousands of years’ worth of antiquities. Some have already been damaged or destroyed in the war, alarming the conservationists trying to protect them.

The ruins of a building close to the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site of Baalbek, The hotel and shops were destroyed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this month.Credit...Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times

By Euan Ward

Euan Ward reported from Beirut, Lebanon, and an army base near Bsous. He spoke to more than a dozen archaeologists, conservationists, military officials and people living near the sites for this article.

Nov. 25, 2024

For Mohammad Kanso, the ancient Roman temples of Baalbek felt like home.

The 2,000-year-old ruins, the pride of Lebanon and considered some of the grandest of their kind in the world, were his childhood playground. When he grew up, he got the same job his father had, running the lights that illuminate the towering columns at night.

But as Israeli airstrikes crept closer to the site, his family was forced to flee earlier this month. Days later, a missile landed yards away from the temple complex, obliterating a centuries-old Ottoman-era building.

“My entire world went black,” said Mr. Kanso.

Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Almost a quarter of Lebanon’s population of about five million has been displaced and more than 3,700 people have been killed, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. But it has also gravely threatened the tiny Mediterranean nation’s antiquities, a shared source of pride in a country long divided by sectarian strife.

The temple complex of Baalbek, which is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, is just one of the sites that are at risk. Archaeologists, conservationists and even the Lebanese military are now racing to protect thousands of years worth of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman treasures.

Image

Lebanese troops piling up sandbags around an ancient water well during a drill at an army base near Beirut. A specialist regiment has been transporting artifacts out of the country’s hard-hit south. Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Last week, UNESCO placed 34 cultural sites in Lebanon under what it calls “enhanced protection,” a measure that defines an attack on them as a serious violation of the 1954 Hague Convention and “potential grounds for prosecution.” But many antiquities are not on the list, and some have already been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes, according to Lebanese officials and the United Nations, including historic churches and cemeteries, centuries-old markets and castles from the Crusades.

Even as cautious optimism mounts around a potential cease-fire deal, much of Lebanon’s heritage has already been irrevocably lost, and the sheer scale of the destruction remains unclear. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government would be forced to juggle the extensive cost of restoration with a deepening humanitarian crisis, and there remains uncertainty over whether a truce could hold and how restoration of these sites would fit in.

“They are destroying memory,” said Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly, a Lebanese archaeologist who runs Biladi, an organization focused on preserving the country’s heritage. She compared the damage from Israeli strikes to that carried out by the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State in Iraq.

When asked whether Israel deliberately targets cultural sites, the Israeli military said in a statement that it strikes in Lebanon only when necessary, adding that sensitive sites are taken into account during military planning and that each “goes through a rigorous approval process.”

Israel has accused Hezbollah of embedding in civilian areas, including near cultural heritage sites. The Israeli military did not respond when asked to provide specific evidence of this claim, which archaeologists and Lebanese officials dispute.

Image

“It’s not collateral damage,” said Gen. Youssef Haydar. “This is heritage. This is history.”Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

The Lebanese military, which is not a part of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, has another mission: protecting the country’s treasures.

Gen. Youssef Haydar is spearheading these efforts. He leads a specialist regiment that has been transporting artifacts out of the country’s hard-hit south, including some dating back to the Roman and Byzantine civilizations.

At the regiment’s base, a few miles outside Beirut, General Haydar’s troops conducted drills in which they piled sandbags on top of real-life artifacts, including a sarcophagus, a strategy designed to protect them from shrapnel or the shock waves of nearby blasts.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

“The more you sweat,” General Haydar said, as he watched his troops, “the less you bleed in war.”

There has been wide-scale destruction in dozens of historic border towns, archaeologists said, that has damaged or destroyed entire areas. Strikes have also expanded to include the centers of big cities, including in Baalbek and Tyre, where Hezbollah enjoys considerable support.

The large-scale destruction of towns and cities has even disturbed the dead. Historic cemeteries in Lebanon also have been damaged or destroyed amid Israel’s offensive, many of them considered heritage sites by archaeologists. The Israeli military said in at least one case that a Hezbollah tunnel compound had been built underneath a cemetery in southern Lebanon.

“It’s not collateral damage,” General Haydar said. “Why the cemeteries? This is heritage. This is history.”

Image

Troops practicing safeguarding artifacts in a room at their base that simulates a bombed-out museum. Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Before the war, about 125,000 people lived in Tyre, about 10 miles from the Israeli border and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. But most have fled amid evacuation orders covering city blocks, and Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah have pounded the area in recent weeks.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Much of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes such marvels as the Tyre Hippodrome, an chariot-racing arena that was one of the largest in the ancient Roman world. The bombardment has already leveled modern buildings within the site, according to the U.N. agency.

Although no visible damage to the ruins has so far been detected, archaeologists say they can only conduct field inspections once the war ends, because of the risks to their lives.

Lebanon has endured myriad wars and crises that have tested conservationists. But it was Beirut’s deadly port explosion in 2020, which destroyed large parts of the capital, including historic buildings and artifacts, that proved most destructive. It was an especially hard-learned lesson for Beirut’s museums and galleries, some of which are now shielding their collections amid the war.

Image

A display case stood empty after an exhibit of ceramic art by Dorothy Salhab Kazemi, a 20th century pioneer of modern ceramics in Lebanon, was moved to the basement of the Sursock Museum in Beirut.Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Image

Sandbags were placed in the basement by the army so that they can be used to protect the museum artifacts in case of an escalation in the conflict.Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Image

The museum’s art collection was stored in a safe place underground.Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

The Sursock Museum, which was heavily damaged in the blast, has in recent weeks moved its entire collection, which includes works by prominent Lebanese artists, into its basement, about 80 feet underground.

In the closed gallery recently, the walls and glass cabinets were stripped bare, and the building’s stained glass windows propped open to protect against sonic booms from the Israeli fighter jets circling overhead.

“We’ve learned one thing from the Beirut explosion,” said Rowina Bou-Harb, the museum’s chief archivist. “Save the heritage.”

Khalid Rifai, who leads government conservation efforts and recently fled his home in Baalbek, recalled how his unit struggled in the wake of the port blast.

“We didn’t have any materials, money, architects, and staff,” he said. “Right now, we’re facing the same crisis on a much wider scale.”

In Baalbek, the Israeli airstrike near the ruins earlier this month left stones and twisted rebar strewed in front of the temples. A burned-out bus lay abandoned in the empty parking lot where tourists once entered the site.

Although the temples remain intact, Mr. Kanso fears they will not survive.

“I hope they remain standing tall for all the coming generations to witness,” he said.

Image

These empty walls of the Sursock Museum would ordinarily be filled with art. The entire collection has been moved to a steel bunker in the basement. Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Reporting contributed by Jacob Roubai and Gabby Sobelman.

Euan Ward is a reporter contributing to The Times from Beirut. More about Euan Ward