World Monuments Fund Incorporates 3 Syrian ancient Sites
The New York-based World Monuments Fund ( WMF ) added three Syrian archeological sites -- Amrit city, Shaizar Citadel and Tell Moran - - to its 2006 list of 100 most endangered heritage and archeological sites.
The list is updated once every two years aims to help increase awareness of these sites to world opinion as part of a move to salvage such places as treasures for all humanity.
World Monuments Fund is the foremost private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic art and architecture worldwide through fieldwork, advocacy, grant-making, education, and training.
Since 1965, the World Monuments Fund has worked with local communities and partners to stem the loss of more than 430 irreplaceable sites in 83 countries.
The three Syrian archeological sites incorporated are: 1 ) Amrit Archaeological Site Founded in the early second millennium B.C., the ancient religious center of Amrit is the site of the only remaining Phoenician temple in the Near East. The site's remains, though fragmentary, reflect an architectural style heavily influenced by the Achaemenid Persians. For most of its life as a settlement, Amrit was under the domination of Arwad, a powerful island nation located three kilometers off the coast. In the third century B.C., under the Seleucids, Amrit made an unsuccessful attempt to free itself of the Arwadian domination. In retaliation, the Arwadians completely annihilated the town of Amrit, leaving behind only ruins. Among the more visible remains of this once prosperous center are two towers, one pyramidal in shape and the other phallic in nature, under which are burial vaults cut into the stone. These monumental structures are surrounded by an array of different tombs and other ruins of Amrit, including later remains such as Roman tombs and a Byzantine church.
Located on the Mediterranean coast, the towers of Amrit are subjected to high humidity, which has seriously affected the stonework, and an abundance of vegetation is beginning to choke the site.
The inclusion of Amrit on WMF's 2004 list of 100 Most Endangered Sites helped to raise its visibility among national authorities, particularly by the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM), which has expressed an interest in preserving it. The DGAM has only recently carried out rescue excavations, revealing first- and second-century A.D. tombs decorated with wall paintings, which came to light when the road connecting Tripoli to Tartous was being widened.
2 ) Shayzar Castle Constructed in the second half of the tenth century on what was once the acropolis of the Hellenistic and Roman town of Caesarea ad Orontem, the Shayzar Castle was one of several fortresses built in the region during the Crusades. Perched on a promontory overlooking the Orontes River, the original Byzantine structure was taken over and expanded by a local clan in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries A.D.
The castle was the object of a major Crusader siege by the Byzantines in 1138; that same year, Shayzar's most famous resident, Usama Ibn Munqidh, was born. Munqidh is best known in the West for Kitab al-Itibar (Learning By Example). Although badly damaged by an earthquake in the 1170s, Shayzar castle remained in use until the fourteenth century, when it was abandoned as a military outpost and eventually transformed into dwellings.
Today, parts of the structure are in danger of imminent collapse due to geological instability exacerbated by exposure to strong winds, vegetation growth, and general neglect. The twelfth-century earthern fortification walls have begun to separate from the rest of the structure. Pieces of walls from the west side of the complex have collapsed and more are in danger of falling on the village of Shayzar below. Support is sought for documentation of the complex and urgent repairs of areas in danger of imminent collapse.
3 ) Tell Mozan (Ancient Urkesh) Set within a stark rural landscape in northeastern Syria, the ancient site of Tell Mozan has recently been identified as the third-millennium B.C. city of Urkesh, religious seat of the Hurrians. Although there are abundant references to these people in the writings of their better-known contemporaries in the Syro-Mesopotamian world such as the Hittites and Akkadians, until recently little was known of the Hurrians in terms of material culture.
Current excavation at Tell Mozan began in 1984, but the identity of the 150-hectare hilltop site, which was occupied from ca. 5000-1500 B.C., was not confirmed until 1995 when a number of seal impressions came to light. Archaeologists have also laid bare several monumental structures, including a palace, a temple, and an underground building thought to symbolize a passage to the Netherworld.
Over the centuries, the site has been damaged by plowing and quarrying for building materials. Site excavators and conservators have been working to protect standing mudbrick walls (many of which rest on stone foundations) from the region's harsh climate as they are excavated by erecting metal cage-like structures around the walls and then covering them with weatherproof fabric.