Rescuing Palmyra’s treasures from the Islamic State group

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In May 2015, when the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria was about to fall to jihadist fighters, a group of men risked their lives to load centuries-old artefacts from the city’s museum onto trucks and drive them to safety.

Before their advance to Palmyra, members of the group that called itself Islamic State had already been filmed for social media smashing statues that dated back to religious life in the Middle East before the Prophet Muhammad.

Khalil Hariri, an archaeology expert who worked at Palmyra’s museum, tells Josephine McDermott about his passion for its history and the personal price he has paid for the daring rescue.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: The damaged site of Palmyra in 2016. The graffiti reads ‘We remain’. Credit: Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the player's mouths. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is a unique
0:22.6	access to the sporting world. What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real
0:28.0	connection to dedicated sports fans across the UK. So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC
0:33.7	Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:44.4	Hello, this is the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:47.8	I'm Josephine McDermott, one of the witness history presenters.
0:51.5	We're the podcast that takes you back to a key moment in history,
0:56.6	and we bring it all to life through incredible archive and the amazing memories of key witnesses.
1:00.6	Episodes are just nine minutes long and they come out every weekday.
1:05.8	So if that sounds like your kind of thing, make sure you subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts and turn your push notifications on so you never miss an episode.
1:10.7	It's 10 years since a group of archaeologists took on jihadist fighters
1:14.7	in a battle to save the world-important heritage of Syria from their destruction.
1:20.7	I've been speaking to Halil Hariri.
1:23.6	It's May 2015 and there's chaos in the desert city of Palmyra in central Syria.
1:29.7	A murderous group of extremists is at war with the regimes of Iraq and Syria, and they're on their way.
1:37.5	Militants from the group, calling itself Islamic State, launched an offensive in the area this week
1:43.4	and are now reported to be within a few
1:45.7	miles of the ancient city. Over the past year, the Islamic State militants have systematically
1:52.3	looted and destroyed important archaeological sites in areas where they seize control,
1:58.3	proudly filming the destruction for its propaganda value
2:01.7	as they try to eliminate all traces of the region's pre-Islamic history.
2:07.5	And now Palmyra could be next.
	...

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