Qualla: Temple of Bel https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Temple of Bel https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel Temple of Bel: Introduction https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel/ Photo credit Mbenoist, CC BY-SA 4.0. For nearly two thousand years, the Temple of Bel refused to serve just one purpose. Dedicated in AD 32 to the Mesopotamian god Bel and his celestial companions -- the lunar deity Aglibol and the sun god Yarhibol -- it was the spiritual center of Palmyra. Then Christians converted it into a church during the Byzantine era. Arab builders modified it into a mosque in 1132. Villagers lived in mud-brick houses inside its enormous courtyard for eight centuries, using the ancient precinct as a fortified citadel. It took ISIS, on 30 August 2015, to finally reduce the temple to something that could serve no purpose at all.

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Image: Mbenoist | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/sy5h-temple-of-bel-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Temple of Bel: Five Thousand Years on a Tell https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel/ Photo credit upyernoz from Haverford, USA, CC BY 2.0. The temple was built on a tell -- an artificial mound formed by millennia of human settlement layered on top of itself. Archaeologists digging beneath the Temple of Bel uncovered a mud-brick structure dating to roughly 2500 BC, followed by Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age structure...

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Image: upyernoz from Haverford, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/sy5h-temple-of-bel-five-thousand-years-on-a-tell.mp3 0:06 2 full Temple of Bel: A Building That Kept Adapting https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel/ Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.5. What made the Temple of Bel remarkable was not just its architecture but its capacity for transformation. When the Praetorian Prefect Maternus Cynegius campaigned against pagan temples across the Eastern Roman Empire between 385 and 388 AD, the temple's religious function ended. ...

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Image: CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/sy5h-temple-of-bel-a-building-that-kept-adapting.mp3 0:06 3 full Temple of Bel: Thirty Seconds of Explosives https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 30 August 2015, ISIS detonated explosives inside the temple's perimeter. Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim initially reported that the basic structure was still standing. He was wrong. The next day, the United Nations confirmed the destruction after reviewing satell...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/sy5h-temple-of-bel-thirty-seconds-of-explosives.mp3 0:06 4 full Temple of Bel: Rebuilding from Photographs https://qualla.com/temple-of-bel/ Photo credit User:Xvlun, CC BY-SA 2.5. The Temple of Bel had been one of Syria's most popular tourist destinations for decades. That popularity proved unexpectedly valuable. Thousands of photographs existed showing the temple from every conceivable angle, making it an ideal candidate for photogrammetric reconstruction...

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Image: User:Xvlun | CC BY-SA 2.5

]]> Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/y/5/h/temple-of-bel-wp/sy5h-temple-of-bel-rebuilding-from-photographs.mp3 0:06 5 full