Lion of Al-Lat destroyed

Why in news?

• Destroyed by IS
• IS’s version of Islam considers statues and grave markers to be idolatrous, and the group has destroyed antiquities and heritage sites in territory under its control in Syria and Iraq. The head of UNESCO (Irina Bokova) has urged a campaign against IS’s “culture cleansing.”

Details about Al-Lat

• A famous statue of a lion outside the museum in the Syrian city of Palmyra
• Limestone statue was discovered in 1977 by archaeological mission at the temple of al-Lat, a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, and dated back to the 1st century BC
• a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site