Syria’s monuments: their survival and destruction

The extent of Syria -- Mapping Syria -- The Syria of yesterday -- The state of Syria in recent centuries -- Governance -- Earthquakes and disease -- Trade -- Circassians and other settlers amongst the monuments -- Nomadic Arabs -- Agriculture and desertification -- Conclusion : impact of Ottoman decline on antiquities -- Travel throughout Syria -- Where to go and how to get there -- Languages, dress and descriptions -- Scholars in the East -- The Bible as a guidebook -- Changing horizons meet the unchanging East -- Biblical monuments "identified"--Other guidebooks : Baedeker, Cook & Murray -- Confected guidebooks : an example -- Travel then tourism : the agony and the ecstasy -- Taxes and robbery -- Profiteering sheikhs -- Haram/forbidden : access to Muslim sites -- Architectural quality : is Syria worth visiting? -- One-upmanship and verbal wars in travel narratives -- Modernisation changes travelling in the unchanging East -- Conclusion -- The life and death of monuments -- Superstitions and monuments -- Treasure-hunting and locals' knowledge of the past -- Vandalism -- Roads milestones bridges -- Railways -- Aqueducts -- Temples -- Degradation -- Locals and antiquities -- Columns as structural tie-bars -- Mosaics and veneers -- Quarries and marble -- Re-use -- Ancient towns and villages and their houses -- The seabord : harbours and ports north to south -- Iskenderun -- Seleucia Pieria -- Lattakia -- Banias -- Tortosa/Tartus & Ruad -- Tripoli -- Byblos -- Beirut -- Sidon -- Sarepta -- Tyre -- Acre -- Haifa -- Caesarea -- Jaffa -- Ascalon -- Gaza -- Aleppo and the north -- Aleppo -- Antioch -- Cyrrhus & Menbij -- Dead cities -- Apamea & Qalaat Mudiq -- Deir -- Semaan & Saint Simeon -- Hama & Homs -- Qasr Ibn Wardan -- Hosn Suleiman -- Damascus and the centre -- Damascus -- Baalbek -- Palmyra -- Anjar, Medjel Anjar & the nearby temple -- Bosra and the south -- Bosra -- Hauran -- Shahba -- Slim, Hit, Atil -- Suweida -- Qanawat -- Salkhad -- Deraa -- Ledja -- Ezraa -- Burak & Mismiye -- Bashan -- Jaulan / Golan Heights -- Counting the settlements -- West of the River Jordan -- Samaria Janin, Capernaum -- Jerusalem -- Herodium -- Jericho & Hebron -- Tiberias -- Beisan -- Beth Shean / Scythopolis -- East of the River Jordan -- Irbid -- Pella -- Yajuz -- Mmm al-Jimal -- Gadara -- Difficult sites - Jerash, Amman, & Petra -- Jerash -- Amman -- Um rasas -- Iraq al-Amir -- Madaba -- Petra -- Fortresses Roman, Muslim, Crusader -- Building and rebuilding "Crusader" fortresses -- Saphet -- Shaizar -- Baalbek -- Beirut -- Athlit -- Kerak -- Krak des Chevaliers -- Desert castles -- Qasr el-Hallabat -- Mschatta and nearby antiquities -- Qasr al-Heir west -- Qasr al-Heir east -- Roman fortresses -- Qasr el-Abyad -- Qasr el-Bai'j -- Masada and its siege camps -- Mayhem : archaeology, museums and mandates -- Archaeology -- Digging in Palestine -- Filling western museums -- The First World War and the French mandates -- Conclusion -- Epilogue : the monuments of Syria in 2016 -- Syria : timelines -- History of archaeology and travel in Syria -- Recent political/military developments in the region, and their sources -- Websites detailing Syria's monuments -- Damaged sites, monuments and museums -- Photographic evidence of destruction in Syria -- Guides/surveys of monuments and regions -- Computer reconstructions -- Conclusion : warning about "restoration
"Syria's monuments : their survival and destruction examines the fate of the various monuments in Syria (including present-day Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine/Israel) from Late Antiquity to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. It examines travellers' accounts, mainly from the 17th to 19th centuries, which describe religious buildings and housing in numbers and quality unknown elsewhere. The book charts the reasons why monuments lived or died, varying from earthquakes and desertification to neglect and re-use, and sets the political and social context for the Empire's transformation toward a modern state, provoked by Western trade and example. An epilogue assesses the impact of the recent civil war on the state of the monuments, and strategies for their resurrection, with plentiful references and web links"--Provided by publisher     Read more...