Unesco om IS-förstörelse i Palmyra: Ett krigsbrott

Palmyra (grekiska Παλμύρα, ’Palmstaden’; arabiska تدمر‎, Tadmor) var en antik stad, numera en arkeologisk plats, i Syrien cirka 215 kilometer nordöst om huvudstaden Damaskus, i en oas i syriska öknen, nära den moderna orten Tadmor. Platsen upptogs på Unescos världsarvslista 1980 och är sedan 2013 även klassad som hotat världsarv. 23 maj 2015 erövrades Palmyra av Islamiska staten som bland annat sprängde Ma‘bad Bal och Baalshamintemplet. Den 27 mars 2016 var Palmyra återtaget av den syriska armén. Den 11 december 2016 har Palmyra återerövrats av Islamiska staten.

A tetrapylon (Greek: τετράπυλον, "four gates"), plural tetrapyla, known in Latin as a "quadrifrons" (literally "four fronts"), is a type of ancient Roman monument of cubic shape, with a gate on each of the four sides: generally it was built on a crossroads. It was a type of monument common to the architectural vernacular of classical antiquity. The defining quality of this form is the concept of four gates, with four pillars or other supporting structures placed at the corners marking the divisions between them. A tetrapylon could take the form of a single building or multiple, separate structures. They were built as landmarks at significant crossroads or geographical 'focal points', as a 'sub-type' of the Roman triumphal arch, or simply as decorative and aesthetically pleasing ornamental architecture. As applied to a triumphal arch (e.g., the Mausoleum of the Julii at Glanum, Arch of Janus, Rutupiae), a tetrapylon was effectively a 'doubling' of the original form; with a total of four major arched openings, one on each side of the structure (one pair of openings opposite each other along one axis, and a second pair of openings of equal or lesser prominence perpendicular to the first pair; hence a structure with two barrel vaulted passageways, in the form of a cross).