Palmyra and the War on Cultural Heritage

In 2015, the beautiful Syrian desert city of Palmyra was stormed by ISIS. They looted the museum, smashed ancient statues and blew up thousand-year-old temples. A handful of museum employees fought back and were brutally murdered. Why was it so important for IS to destroy art and important cultural artefacts?

In the book Knus de falske gudene (Crush the False Gods) (translated to Norwegian from Swedish by Trude Marstein), the two Swedish journalists Jesper Huor and Anders Rydell tell the story of how the remnants of the human race's first high culture, the cradle of civilisation, are being eradicated.

Meet Huor in conversation with Kholod Saghir about the many incidents of the war on cultural heritage. 

The conversation is in Swedish.