In eastern Lebanon, the Israeli army claims to have targeted Hezbollah command centers in the town of Baalbek this Wednesday, October 30 in the evening. However, the city is also home to ancient ruins, and these strikes, close to classified sites, scandalize archaeologists.
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For the moment, no damage to the ancient site of Baalbek by Israeli strikes in Lebanon has been reported. But with the recent Israeli strikes on Baalbek, Pascal Butterlin, professor of oriental archeology at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, fears seeing an entire section of Humanity heritage go up in smoke.
“ It would be a disaster, as was the case for other sites that were affected by destruction »worries Pascal Butterlin. The professor mentions in particular the site of Palmyra, in Syriapartly destroyed during the conflict with the terrorist group ofEI. A site with which “ Baalbek has many affinities, since it is also a very large sanctuary from the Roman era which was dedicated to Heliopolitan Jupiter », recalls the researcher.
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A destruction of Baalbek would not only be scandalous, but also incomprehensible to the archaeologist: “ Most of these monuments are already ruins and we really do not understand why they would be targeted by the armed forces. »
Baalbek is a World Heritage Site, protected by the Hague Convention. Normally, belligerents are not supposed to strike archaeological sites. But the general tendency is to ignore these rules, and archaeologists are increasingly mobilizing in the face of conflicts that threaten sites in the region.
“ There is a real archeology of conflicts which has developed in recent years to monitor the damage, carry out experiments, carry out reconstruction if the monuments are more damaged than they already are. », concludes Pascal Butterlin.