With ISIS targeting and destroying ancient cultural sites in Syria and Iraq, reducing some to just rubble, it may be that views of these historic structures will survive only in photographs. The Getty Research Institute (GRI) announced yesterday its acquisition of a suite of photographs that offer rare glimpses of some of these places as they stood 150 years ago. Captured in 1864 by French naval officer Louis Vignes, the crisp, well-preserved pictures show sites in present day Beirut, Lebanon, and the Roman ruins in Palmyra, Syria. Among the 47 albumen prints are the earliest printed photographs of Palmyra, showing the Temple Baalshamin and Temple of Bel, both of which ISIS is believed to have recently obliterated, in August and September, respectively. Other images show panoramas of Beirut’s port — the region’s most significant in the 19th century — and views of the city surrounded by grand pine trees.
Source: Getty Research Institute Acquires 150-Year-Old Photographs of Palmyra and Beirut
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