Footage filmed on Saturday shows the remains of the ancient city of Ebla, near Tell Mardikh, in an area recently recaptured by SAA forces in Idlib countryside.
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Images show part of the archaeological site, located 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Aleppo, with remains of the city’s structure around the area. Hundreds of archaeological artefacts are also visible inside Idlib’s former centre for the Italian archaeological mission.
“The excavations at this location started 1964 and had to stop in 2010 as a result of the situation in Syria. Tell Mardikh was turned into a training camp [by militias],” explained Ghazi Alloulou, Director of Antiquities and Museums in Idlib.
“They built a network of tunnels. Ebla was destroyed systematically. They used heavy machinery to excavate the area. Many fans of destruction and smugglers of archaeological pieces participated in the destruction of the wonderful Ebla kingdom acropolis,” he added.
Ancient Ebla, which was founded more than 5,000 years ago above the Idlib plain, lies just east of the Aleppo-Damascus highway and is the most important archaeological site from the Bronze Age in the country. The city was discovered in 1964 by a team of Italian archaeologists, who unearthed ancient archives made of hundreds of stone tablets dating back to the 24th century BCE.
Credit: Ruptly
