On Wednesday, May 20th, Islamic State forces entered the ancient city of Palmyra, in the Syrian desert, a strategically important area on the way to Damascus.
The Unesco World Heritage site of Palmyra, the "Venice of the Sands", one of the most important historic places in the Middle East, centre of a vast trade network during the Roman Empire, is today a site of enormous archaeological interest, but also very vulnerable as most of the archaeology lies just beneath the surface and can therefore easily be looted or destroyed.
Islamic State forces have already destroyed or sold off other ancient...